October 4th, 2016

$10 per pay period can help plant 240 trees. $20 can provide health-care services for 24 mothers and their babies, from pregnancy to post-delivery. $50 can vaccinate 960 children against polio.

Those are just some of the examples of how the government’s annual fundraising campaign, the Combined Federal Campaign, can help a variety of recipients. For 55 years, federal employees have contributed more than $8 billion through CFC.

Mildred McCullough is a DoD loaned executive for CFC this year and met with garrison directors last week. “Leadership involvement leads to program success,” she told them.

“Everyone has a passion to help others,” McCullough said. “We want you to show some love to any of the more than 20,000 charities.” ‘Show some love’ is this year’s campaign theme.

The Defense Department has a $9 million goal this year. Of that, the Army has a $1.3 million goal. Lynne Castro, garrison CFC campaign manager, said this year’s garrison CFC goal is $20,000. Last year, the $21,000 goal was exceeded by more than half, with $33,765 pledged, with only 29 percent of employees donating. “Belvoir garrison’s goal is completely do-able,” Castro said.

Units’ CFC keyworkers can answer questions and have donation forms, if needed. However, contributors are urged to donate online, or use MyPay, which reduces costs, ultimately giving more money to individual charities. The National Capital Area’s CFC’s website is http://cfcnca.org.