MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Station volunteers with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 12 and Marine Aircraft Group 12 participated in a communityrelations event at the Marifu Hoikuen (Marifu pre-school/ kindergarten) March 14, 2013.
“Today, we continued our commanding officer’s mission of community-relations projects that are geared to make positive ties of friendship with the Japanese citizens living in this vicinity,” said Navy Lt. Travis E. Coffey, MAG-12 deputy chaplain and MALS-12 chaplain.
The volunteers assisted the children with their English language lessons as well.
“We want to make connections with families, and what better way to do that than by investing in the children of the community?” said Coffey. “So, what we do consistently is go out to different pre-schools and teach them words, names, numbers and how to count.”
Though the children are young and just beginning their long road of education, the volunteers handed out certificates of accomplishment to those students moving on to the next level in their studies.
“We gave the graduates a certificate from the MALS-12 commanding officer, as well as a muffin to congratulate them on their education achievements thus far,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam A. Beyer, MAG-12 chaplain’s office group religious program specialist. “Since we supervise and coordinate the MAG-12 comrels we go to all of them. We do maybe, four to five a month, year-round.”
Volunteers used an interactive-learning environment to help them better communicate with the children.
“We played several games, counted to 20 a few times and also went over different animals and the sounds that they make,” said Beyer.
Because Japan is a host nation for U.S. servicemembers, it is important to maintain strong, positive relations with Japanese members of the community.
“It’s important that the Japanese citizens see us constantly and consistently out and amongst the community, meeting needs that we can provide for the community,” said Coffey. “They hear very publicly and strongly anything that happens negatively with our services, somebody makes a bad decision everybody hears about it, so what we can do is display our positive image to the community to assist us in maintaining ties with our host nation earning their trust.”
Community-relations projects occur often and are sanctioned and coordinated by the unit hosting them. Volunteer opportunities abound at the air station, and the easiest way to become part of a comrel is to speak with a unit chaplain.