Gen. Arnold Bunch Jr., commander, Air Force Materiel Command, and Col. Patrick Miller, commander, 88th Air Base Wing, will give messages supporting the campaign. This year’s local campaign push will be conducted from Oct. 7 to Nov. 20, with contributions able to be made now through Jan. 15, 2021, said Susy Himelhoch, CFC Dayton District director.
Using the national CFC theme and tagline of “Show Some Love: Be the Face of Change”, the campaign will seek to contact 100 percent of all local Department of Defense, federal, U.S. Postal Service and Veterans Affairs personnel, she said.
The kickoff event will be emceed by Sean Hennessy, chief of Air Force Life Cycle Management’s Director’s Action Group and include messages from Jacque Fisher, chair of OCFC, Dayton District, and Chris Merlo, vice chair. Several charities will give presentations.
“CFC is so critical to our local charities and the great work they do,” Fisher said. “Whether it’s one that I am actively working for or one of my friends asking for money, I know personally the clients supported need the help. I know I pray during this difficult COVID time, that folks who haven’t used services do ask for help. We exist to provide help when people need a bridge.”
Fisher is encouraging everyone to tune in to the campaign kickoff – even though it is being presented in a different format this year due to COVID-19.
“While I personally don’t love working from home, we do still have an awesome opportunity to find new ways to educate folks in how to become involved,” she said.
“In our area we are seeing lots of adversity. Each one of us has an opportunity to change a person’s life through the giving of time, talent or dollars. CFC is the once a year time to make that difference,” Fisher said.
“CFC is about connecting people and helping them help out their personal cause or causes,” Merlo said. “It is needed more now than even pre-COVID.”
He is enthusiastic about this year’s theme and tagline.
“It is even more appropriate because we are all in this together. We need to be even more connected as a community to make things different and be that face of change,” he said. “I am really excited about what we are about to do.”
One advantage of this year’s virtual event is that it will showcase several charities, each of which will provide a 90-second presentation about their mission.
“Instead of just walking by a table at the Nutter Center and picking up a tchotchke, you are going to learn something significant about each of the charities,” Merlo said. “That’s another way we are making the most out of our current situation.”
Another advantage to CFC is it doesn’t call people at home asking for a donation. It provides as much information as needed by a prospective donor/volunteer so they can make an informed decision, and offers more than 6,000 different charities, he pointed out.
“It gives you the information about the cause or causes you want to ‘show some love’ to,” Merlo said. “You can really learn about organizations you may not be acquainted with because of CFC.”
The CFC vice chair said he also wants people to know that the campaign encourages volunteerism — whether or not an individual is making a financial donation.
“CFC can help connect you to charities so you can donate your time and talents,” Merlo said. “A lot of people may be down a bit financially, but you still want to be a part of making change. Now you can be a part of it all by going online and seeing how to do so and donate your valuable time.”
The thousands of approved CFC charities cover all aspects of the human experience, from the environment to health to animals, arts and education.
Volunteer opportunities can be found and contributions to CFC can be made by visiting https://GiveCFC.org.
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