ROSC gives joy to servicemembers this holiday season

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Michael Voss
  • 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  Members of the Ramstein Officer Spouses' Club joined cooking forces with members of the Kaiserslautern/Landstuhl Spouses' Association and the Ramstein Enlisted Spouses' Association to bring some holiday joy to the more than eleven thousand servicemembers who call the dorms on Vogelweh Military Complex and Ramstein home.

Volunteers from the Kaiserslautern Military Community began bringing bakers sheets full of cookies to the Northside Chapel in the early morning hours, Dec. 11.

"I will be baking Christmas cookies for my immediate family this season, and I think of the Air Force as one big family...that's why I am here," said ROSC member Nancy Banik.

Making enough cookies was no small effort, needing more than 13,000; many of the volunteers had been working for hours to bake enough goodies.
"I started baking on Tuesday," said Mrs. Banik. "I have cooked 10 dozen so far, but it is worth it."

The spouses clubs also got help from Ramstein elementary and intermediate school students who hand-decorated the bags, some colored with simple "Merry Christmas" wishes, others elaborately colored depicting Santa Claus leaving the bag in the dorm.

"Our troops are great troops, and they deserve a great Christmas," Carol Ann Stenetz said. "We need to do what we can to give each of them a little bit of home."

After the bags are filled with the cookies, candies and candy canes they will be distributed by the dorm managers of the combined 15 dormitories between the two bases.

"We could not have done this without the help of our dorm contacts and managers," said April Kirby, ROSC holiday chair. "This is a real military community effort."