Jonathan Stinson | The Redstone Rocket | May 10, 2023

For the first time since 2019, the garrison workforce spent some time out of the office for a morale-boosting, team-building activity commonly called Org Day – short for organization day.

This garrison-wide event had everything you’d expect from an org day – plenty of food, games, prizes, and a little karaoke, but this year featured a twist.

A handful of the garrison’s leadership were convinced to take part in a dunking booth to help raise money for Army Emergency Relief.

Maggie Parsons, a management and program analyst student trainee in the Directorate of Public Works, spearheaded the effort to have the dunking booth at the event, along with some help from Emily Sill, a management and program analyst for DPW.

“We originally thought about dunking the colonel,” Parsons said. “But then we thought it would be a lot of fun to get a lot of the directors, along with the colonel, command sergeant major, and Mr. (Martin) Traylor, (deputy to the garrison commander) to get involved.”

In the end, Col. Brian Cozine, garrison commander; Command Sgt. Maj. Dylan Lemasters; Traylor; Joey Skinner, DPW director; Derrick Gould, Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation director; and Rickey Hammond, engineering division chief in DPW, all took turns in the dunking seat. Gould was the only one fortunate enough to escape being dunked. He was the beneficiary of a long line for food and an awards ceremony that took place during his time manning the tank.

Hammond said there was a 100 percent chance he was going in the water prior to Thursday’s event at the Redstone Activity Field.

“I’ve got two or three guys that can put me in,” he said. “They need to throw from way, way back there.”

The temperature outside started in the mid-60s, when Hammond climbed up on the dunking seat. There was a little wind out of the east, which meant some of the participants found the conditions more pleasant in the water than sitting on top of the little plank that held them out of the water.

It cost throwers $2 a ball or $5 for three balls. For those who wanted to make sure they got to dunk someone, they could pay $20 to walk up to the target and push the plunger, sending whoever was in the tank at that time into the water.

“I’ll be honest with you about why I said I’d do it,” Hammond said. “I know that my mouth will excite the crowd.”

Hammond managed to bring in $76 by himself.

In all the dunking booth made $277, which was donated to AER at the end of the event.

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