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Team Andersen family makes community service a family activity

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Carissa Wolff
  • 36th Wing Public Affairs
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam --  November is Military Family Month and Team Andersen has a military family who volunteers for fun as a family. The Toney family volunteers at least once a month doing things such as painting local schools, feeding families during Thanksgiving and picking up trash on local beaches.

The Toney family consists of Senior Master Sgt. Jason Toney, 36th Force Support Squadron, Tech. Sgt. Travana Toney, 36th Wing, 8-year-old Brianna Toney and 5-year-old Jordan Toney.

The Toney family makes volunteering a joint effort, with new ideas coming from all members of the family. The Toney family most recently volunteered painting local George Washington High School.

According to Senior Master Sgt. Toney it is very important to volunteer in one's local community.

"Military members not only have a responsibility to their installation, but they also have a responsibility to take care of the community that is allowing the U.S. Air Force into their community," Senior Master Sgt. Toney said.

For the Toney family it is important to volunteer together to maintain a sense family and stay close.

"Volunteering keeps us together," Tech. Sgt. Toney said. "Being able to volunteer not only brings us together as a couple, but as an entire family. It's important in a military family to stay close knit due to high deployment rates and the high operation tempo of the U.S. Air Force. We never know when my husband or I will be deployed, so we have to constantly work on being a whole family, and not several pieces of a family."

The Toney family also uses volunteering as a teaching tool for their children.

"You want to teach your kids early that you may not have much, but what you do have is always more than someone else out there, and that's why it is so important to help others around you," said Senior Master Sgt. Toney.