Happy Holidays from the 181st Family Programs Office Published Oct. 24, 2008 By Johnny Saylor 181st IW/FRG Hulman Field, Ind. -- The FRG would like to wish all Wing families a Safe and Happy Holiday Season. This has been a great year for the Family Readiness Group. We have had a full year of activities for our volunteers. The year started with 14 members attending the State Family Volunteers' Workshop in Indianapolis; where they were awarded the Family Readiness Unit of the Year for Army and Air, the best of the best. Many of our members were also presented certificates for their volunteer work with our program. Congratulations to all of our Group Volunteers for giving your time so freely to the 181st. In June, quite a few of our children attended Kids AT at Camp Atterbury. We also had many of our Airmen volunteer to work at the camp. There were over 200 total campers; the largest group thus far. The camp is held yearly the last part of June and applications are normally available in March. Place this on your 2009 calendar now so that your children can have an experience of a lifetime. Seven members from our base were then off in July to the National Workshop in St. Louis, MO. We spent a week learning about new family programs and getting the latest information from the National Guard Bureau. The Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, ADM Michael Mullen spoke on Monday morning along with LTG H. Steven Blum, Chief, National Guard Bureau. The rest of the week was filled with other top military leaders addressing the group. Each leader stressed their appreciation for all the hard work that the Family Programs volunteers are doing in each state. September drill we held our 2nd Operation Kids Deploy event for unit children; 53 kids and 13 adults participated. The day started in the main hanger with roll call, equipment checks, ID issuance, orders, a quick breakfast, and mission displays by the Civil Air Patrol and the ASOS. Deployers were then assembled for an Intel, Finance, Safety, Chaplain, and FRG brief. With all briefing completed we loaded on busses and deployed to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. The deployed members had an opportunity to explore the Museum for about 3 hours before we returned to base. Board members would like to thank all of the people who made this a great success. The next Operation Kids Deploy is scheduled for 2010. If you missed this deployment be ready to join us then. We will be assembling some care boxes for all our Airmen who are overseas this holiday season. If you would like to send your own care package and need an address, check with their duty section or give us a call. The Wing also has many Airmen deployed to different bases state-side this holiday season. We want to wish all of our members a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.