Eggs Benefit: Team Vance kicks off AFAF campaign Published Feb. 5, 2015 By David Poe 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- "Airmen helping Airmen" was the credo when Team Vance kicked off its 2015 Air Force Assistance Fund campaign with a breakfast at the Community Chapel Activity Center Feb. 2. While 33rd Flying Training Squadron Airmen and family members served fresh breakfast burritos, base AFAF campaign leaders served information on the six-week season. "Donating (to AFAF) will help Airmen across our base," said Tech Sgt. Amy Snyder, Vance's Air Force aid officer. "Vance received over $60,000 in aid last year, our request or goal (from Vance) this year is less than half of that." For more than 40 years, today's AFAF has benefited four charitable funds: the Air Force Aid Society, Air Force Enlisted Village, Blue Skies of Texas (formerly Air Force Village,) and the Gen. and Mrs. Curtis E. LeMay Foundation. Since the days of the Army Air Corps, AFAS has helped foster initiatives such as Airmen and their families' emergency assistance loans, education grants, and educational and community programs. "Most people may know [Air Force Aid Society] by 'Falcon loans,' but it covers so much more," said Snyder. According to AFAS, a Falcon Loan is an emergency assistance loan for up to $750 for eligible Airmen or some spouses. Synder reminded the audience that the AFAS has a wide support network with almost $17 million worth of emergency assistance and education and community programs disbursed in 2014. "You really never know if (AFAS) is going to affect you," she said, "and most of the time, it already has." The Air Force Enlisted Village mission is to provide a home to surviving spouses of retired enlisted Airmen. Although widows are the primary focus of AFEV, it also "offers a home to moms of active duty and retired military members and provides temporary housing to surviving spouses of enlisted members who die while on active duty or to active duty members when tragedy strikes." Blue Skies of Texas, formerly Air Force Village, serves Air Force officer widows who require financial assistance. Since 1970, the former Air Force Village claims more than $12 million in confidential support to those in need. The Gen. and Mrs. Curtis E. LeMay Foundation assists all Air Force widows through financial grants. The organization was founded by the fifth Air Force chief of staff and his wife Helen, who are remembered as staunch Air Force family service advocates. According to the foundation, they gave almost $500,000 in assistance in 2012. Campaign co-manager 2nd Lt. Lauren Cook, the 71st Force Support Squadron Manpower and Organization chief, said the work involved with the breakfast and planning upcoming AFAF campaign events has already proved to be beneficial in her first year as an organizer. "It's been a great opportunity to work with people you maybe wouldn't normally work with every day," she said with 30 AFAF campaign key workers joining her from across the base. "It's a big, cohesive effort." In her second year organizing Vance's AFAF campaign, Senior Master Sgt. Susan Yerman, the campaign co-manager and the 71st Medical Operations Squadron superintendent, said she finds volunteering for the AFAF campaign to be especially fulfilling as a senior enlisted leader on base. "There's always going to be a need for assistance -- it's Airmen helping Airmen," the 18-year Air Force veteran said. "It's taking care of our own people." For more information on Vance's AFAF campaign, call Cook at 213-5556 or Yerman at 213-7922. For more information on AFAF, visit: www.afassistancefund.org www.afenlistedwidows.org www.blueskiesoftexas.org http://www.lemay-foundation.org