Military members and their families throughout the National Capital Region gathered to volunteer at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington D.C. in celebration of National Family Volunteer Day, Nov. 14.

Family Volunteer Day is a day of service that demonstrates and celebrates the power of families who volunteer together, supporting their neighborhoods, communities and the world. The volunteer organization Points of Light created the day 24 years ago to showcase the benefits of family volunteering and provide opportunities for families to help communities create supportive environments for their children and each other.

Volunteers participated in various activities including clean-up of the retirement home grounds, interior fall and holiday decoration, and arts and crafts for the children such as designing holiday appreciation cards for the residents. The Armed Forces Retirement Home is an independent agency in the executive branch of the U.S. government that provides residents and related services for certain retired and former members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

"Anything that has to do with giving back to our veterans specifically, is my favorite kind of event to volunteer," said Chief Boatswain's Mate Denise Domingo, Naval Support Activity Washington volunteer coordinator. "Coming to the Armed Forces Retirement Home, the Honor Flights especially for our Korean War and World War II Veterans, because we're losing them and they're pretty much walking history. Just having the chance to give back to the people who gave so much already is very important to me."

Some of the residents at the retirement home also volunteered as project coordinators for the different tasks planned for the event to give residents and volunteers a chance to interact with each other and share stories and their experiences during their time of service.

"I enjoy when people come here and volunteer, it keeps me busy, I get to meet a lot of people and it keeps us, the residents, in contact with the outside world," said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class William Stephens (ret), an Armed Forces Retirement Home resident. "Most or the volunteer groups are very small anywhere from five to 20 people, this one is more than a hundred, it is very nice, a group this size we may get two or three a year."

A total of 117 volunteers participated in the event which was coordinated by Naval District Washington's community service office.

"We need more people besides just the volunteers, some of our residents are getting up there in age and more contact with people from the outside would really help us," said Stephens.

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For more news from Naval District Washington, visit www.navy.mil/local/ndw


For more news from Naval District Washington, visit www.navy.mil/.