SPOTLIGHT

The T. Boone Pickens Foundation focuses grants to organizations that operate in its core giving categories (see “About TBPF”). The current partner spotlight is USO Dallas/Fort Worth, a non-profit organization that serves personnel in all branches of the military — active duty, National Guard, reserve, retirees, and authorized family members.

Among the services the organization provides military personnel returning to duties in Iraq or Afghanistan at its Terminal B location (at Gate 39 on the secure side) at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is its United Through Reading® Military Program, which offers a meaningful opportunity for powerful emotional connections that help relieve the stress of separation by having deployed service members read aloud to children via DVD.

“Staying connected to family is incredibly important to our military personnel when they are stationed so far away in harm’s way,” Pickens says. “Supporting the military veterans and their families is a key part of my philanthropy. We can never forget the sacrifice they make for our country and the need to support them. This is a proven and effective program, and I am proud to be associated with it.”

During manifest, the time between a solider must report to the airport for the trip to Iraq and Afghanistan and the time the outbound plane actually leaves for the war zone can be several hours. DFW/USO volunteers encourage deployed mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters to come into the Reading Room to select a book that they can read to their youngster while being recorded. When finished, the DVD, book, baby blanket and a beanie baby is placed in an overnight envelope and mailed home to their child.

“We send out close to 300 packages a month,” says Bill Moore, chairman of the D/FW USO Advisory Council. “The very generous support of Mr. Pickens to our D/FW USO Center has helped us earn ‘best-on-the-planet’ accolades from service members and their families. We receive countless, heartfelt messages along with pictures of children being read to by their deployed parent.”

The program helps deployed parents and children communicate in a meaningful way during separations, D/FW USO says, boosting family morale and helping ease children's fears about the parent's absence and reduce anxiety upon reunion. The organization, one of only two U.S. airport locations accommodating the Army's Rest and Recuperation (R&R) program, also provides nourishment and cheer for service personnel in-transit during the holidays. The D/FW USO provided nourishment to about 5,500 military personnel who traveled through DFW Airport last year during the holidays, including formal dinners served on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

For more information, call Volunteer Coordinator Linda Robinson at 972-574-3383 or visit www.uso.org/dfw/. For any information on in-kind or monetary donations, please contact D/FW USO Center Director Rhenda White-Brunner at 972-574-8764.