Creativity, initiative has Airmen throwing shoes

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Justin Weaver
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy --  An Airman from base proved that a little creativity and a lot of initiative can have you throwing shoes by the end of the day.

Airman 1st Class Brannon Fissette, 31st Communications Squadron ground radio troop, along with Airmen from the 31st Logistics Readiness Squadron and 31st CS dormitory council, decided to improve their quality of life by building a horseshoe pit next to their residence.

"We wanted an activity that would get dorm residents working together on an activity that betters our quality of life," said Airman Fissette, who manages all of the cell phones, blackberries and land mobile radios on base. "Our dormitory consists of two squadrons at the moment, so we don't have the opportunity to work with everyone we live with. We thought a dorm council project such as this was perfect to bring everyone together."

Money, time and logistics can often hamper ideas like this from coming to fruition, but the dormitory council didn't let that sideline their goal.

"Everything we needed was donated and manpower was provided by the Airmen in the dorm," said Airman Fissette. "The horseshoe pits were completely free to build, the backboards were built with scrap wood, the sand was donated by CE (31st Civil Engineer Squadron), and the actual horseshoes we are using were donated from an Airman living in the dorms."

The generosity didn't just stop with supplies. The Top 3 from the 31st CS/LRS donated food and the spent their afternoon grilling for the Airmen.

"It was pretty cool to watch the Airmen of CS and LRS come out and just start working," said Master Sgt. Christopher King, 31st CS first sergeant. "It was a good team effort from both CS and LRS. This is their home, if they have ideas of ways to improve it, let us know."

For Airman Fissette, the horseshoe project is just the beginning of several quality of life projects he and the dormitory council would like to see implemented.

"We have a couple ideas for future plans -- maybe installing a second horseshoe pit or some ping pong tables," he said. "The Airmen who helped us finish this project deserve a lot of credit -- especially for having to dig through the extremely rocky dirt and putting the horseshoe backboards in the ground."