SAN ANGELO, Texas -- The Chamber of Commerce hosted the 13th annual Goodfellow Appreciation Day, an event open to Goodfellow members and their families at the Bill Aylor Sr. Memorial RiverStage, May 19.
Various local organizations, businesses and volunteers showed their support by donating supplies or manning food and activity booths. The free family friendly event included activities such as a rock wall, a sumo suit obstacle course, balloons and bubble guns for children as well.
“This is really cool that the community would put this on for us,” said Pfc. Patrick MacDonald, Marine Corps Detachment at Goodfellow trainee. “This shows that everybody does actually care about what we are doing. We may still only be in student status but it is nice to know that people support that we are serving. There are a lot of people out there that wouldn’t go to this level to help and volunteer just to help us, but it is really nice to see this many people come out and do that.”
Few towns show their military support the way that San Angelo does and service members stationed at Goodfellow certainly notice the city’s gratitude.
“The military has been very important to me my whole life,” said San Angelo civic leader, Dr. Carol Bonds. “My dad was Army so I know how much they sacrifice, but today is just such a happy day. I want our military and civilians that work at Goodfellow to know that this is just a small token of how our city loves our military. I hope that everyone goes home and says, ‘San Angelo really does appreciate our efforts and services’.”
Another way that the city recognizes military members is through the Phil Neighbors Community Impact award.
During the event Tech. Sgt. Louis Erk, 315th Training Squadron instructor supervisor, was awarded the Phil Neighbors Community Impact award for volunteer work in San Angelo. This year’s recipient was Erk.
Erk explained that he helped create a Science Technology Engineering and Math program for children, kindergarten through 5th grade, in the community. The group goes out to local schools and teaches them about geospatial intelligence and science.
Events like Goodfellow Appreciation Day help highlight the strong connection between the city and base.
“The Chamber of Commerce hosted this in partnership with the community, we have the sponsorships and the volunteers,” said Chamber of Commerce Membership director, Amanda Hodges. “Thank you for attending, we appreciate you, your families and the sacrifices that you make. I’d also like to thank all the sponsors and the volunteers who made this wonderful day possible, one volunteer specifically, Elaine Sorrell who jumped in with both feet to help us.”