It is important that the Armed Services YMCA (ASYMCA) continues advancing our mission of providing support services for junior enlisted military personnel and their families, especially during a time of war. One of the ways we ensure the continual growth of the ASYMCA and the ongoing development and improvement of services available is through our annual Raytheon Program Achievement Awards and Community YMCA Awards.

The Raytheon Program Achievement Awards recognize programming excellence and have helped the ASYMCA expand some of our most successful national programs, including Operation Kid Comfort, a program that has provided more than 2,000 children of deployed personnel with personalized quilts featuring photos of their military families.

Because ASYMCA branches meet the varied needs of America’s military community through many varied services, the Raytheon Program Achievement Awards recognize programs in three categories: Best New Program, Best Use of Volunteers, and Most Improved Program. The Best New Program winner receives a $10,000 grant, and the Best Use of Volunteers and Most Improved Program winners each receive $4,500 grants. Last year’s winners were:

• Best New Program: Twenty-nine Palms ASYMCA’s thrift store at the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command;
• Best Use of Volunteers: Pulaski County ASYMCA’s Service on Saturdays (S.O.S.) program, which brings active duty personnel at Fort Leonard Wood into the local community for volunteer projects; and
• Most Improved Program: ASYMCA of Alaska’s new visitor center, the Warrior Zone, which has quickly become a recreational hub at Fort Richardson.

But ASYMCAs branches aren’t the only organizations that provide specialized services for military personnel and their families. Community YMCAs often serve families of the National Guard and Reserves who frequently are not located on or near major military installations and do not have the support structure available to active duty military. For facilities that serve these and other military families in need, the ASYMCA presents the Raytheon Community YMCA Awards to one winner from each of six regions across the country. Last year, winners of the $1,000 prize included the following:

• Southeast Region: Habersham YMCA in Savannah, Ga.;
• Mid-Lakes Region: Ralph J. Stolle YMCA in Lebanon, Ohio;
• Midwest Region: Benjamin Harrison YMCA in Indianapolis, Ind.;
• Mid-Atlantic Region: Brookville YMCA in Brookville, Pa.;
• Northeast Region: Northeast Family YMCA in Snyder, N.Y.; and
• Western Region—Mission Valley YMCA in San Diego, Calif.

This awards program is made possible through the generous support of global defense technology leader Raytheon, which has given more than $400,000 to ASYMCA branches and YMCA programs for military families over the past 19 years. These contributions have helped jumpstart more than 90 programs serving military families.

For more information about ASYMCA, including the Raytheon Program Achievement Awards and Community YMCA Awards, please visit www.asymca.org.