Volunteer spirit

Col. Tom Anderson, 188th Fighter Wing commander, left, Sarah Thorne, wife of deployed 188th member Shawn Thorne, middle, and Victoria Israel are recognized at a Commander's Call March 6. Thorne and Israel set up a silent auction at a local club to raise money to send sports packages to the deployed members of the 188th, which is currently deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan. The duo set their initial goal at $1,000 to send four sports packages, each containing 12 baseball bats, 144 Wiffle balls, 24 Frisbees and 10 footballs. They exceeded their goal and raised $3,100. The additional funds raised allowed them to purchase and send two boxes of deflated basketballs, soccer balls, baseballs, softballs, footballs and air pumps. They also were able to purchase and send three DVD players, 94 new release DVDs, more than 50 novels, 20 board games and 40 sets of sheets. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech Sgt. Stephen Hornsey/188th Fighter Wing Public Affairs)