Fort McCoy began its support for the 81st Army Emergency Relief Campaign on Feb. 28 with a campaign kickoff breakfast at McCoy’s Community Center on post.

The AER campaign runs annually from March 1 to May 15, according to the AER webpage, www.armyemergencyrelief.org. AER helps provide emergency financial funds for food, rent, funeral expenses, emergency medical expenses, and other needs.

Contributions to AER help active-duty Soldiers (single and married) and their Families, retirees and their Family members, and surviving spouses or orphans of Soldiers who died while on active duty or after they retired.

The breakfast included dozens of Fort McCoy community members. The breakfast was organized by the Fort McCoy Army Community Service Office with the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation. Fort McCoy Garrison Deputy Commander Lt. Col. Chad Maynard provided opening remarks at the event.

“What I wanted to talk about is how we can make an impact this year,” Maynard said. “Last year we were, I believe, just $64 short of $11,000 (in donations). That was because of you. … We thank you for that.”

Maynard encouraged continued success for the AER campaign for 2023.

One of ACS’ campaign coordinators, Janeen Folgers, led the discussion about the campaign. She noted how AER helps many people in many categories, including through financial assistance as well as scholarships.

“In 2022, we gave out $44,114.13 in loans and grants,” Folgers said.

Dianne Sommers with ACS is also a campaign coordinator. She helped with unit project officer training following the breakfast, and she coordinated AER trivia during the presentation during the campaign kick-off.

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System, Facebook and on Twitter.

Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.

For more on the AER Annual Campaign, go to https://www.armyemergencyrelief.org/campaign.