Sailors assigned to the submarine tender USS Frank Cable (AS 40) dedicated their off-duty recreation time to support Island Girl Power, a community service organization for young girls in Guam, June 9.

Island Girl Power's mission is to decrease the occurrence of teen pregnancy, suicide, substance and sexual abuse by empowering young ladies to make healthy lifestyle choices and encouraging positive self-esteem with mentors and role models, while inspiring cultural and community pride.

Frank Cable and Island Girl Power have partnered together for more than 14 years to support the local community in Dededo, Guam.

"In 2004, USS Frank Cable volunteers helped us to relocate from our old facility in Tiyan to our current location in Dededo," said Juanita Blaz, Island Girl Power program director. "Since that time we have been able to do some amazing projects making earth buckets, cleaning neighborhood parks, painting wall murals, reorganizing various rooms in the center and mentoring."

Along with the benefits for the community, Sailors can feel a sense of achievement after taking part.

"When I'm participating in the COMRELs (community relations projects), it makes me super happy to be doing something small to make such a big difference in the community," said Information Systems Technician 3rd Class Samantha McCoy, a volunteer assigned to Frank Cable.

The day's tasks included organizing the Family Enrichment Center, separating usable donations and rearranging the thrift store. The garden lots and park area needed yard maintenance as well.

"In the past, several individuals have taken their personal time to assist us with IT (information technology), instructing classes, mentoring, guest speaking, or physical activity sessions," said Blaz. "We accept short term volunteers, instructors, community service groups, service learning, job training, military community relations, youth sports and other groups to support the many programs [and] services we provide."

Electrician's Mate 2nd Class Alan Guan, a regular volunteer assigned to Frank Cable, explained why he enjoys helping with COMRELs and giving back to the community.

"I have seen and lived in tough and hard times growing up. I understand the struggle and need for help when everyday people just ignore it," said Guan. "To help is not for the recognition for me. It is more for the recognition of those lives that I help change for the better. A caterpillar will only grow into a butterfly when it finds the right plant, I consider myself that plant to allow it to become the butterfly."

Frank Cable, forward deployed to Guam, repairs, rearms and reprovisions deployed U.S. naval forces in the Indo-Pacific region.

For more information on Frank Cable, find us on Facebook at USS Frank Cable (AS 40), or http://www.csp.navy.mil/frankcable.

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