CGOs give back to community

CGOs volunteer at Sarah's Home

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – Members of the Company Grade Officer’s Council pose for a photograph after completing a playground for Sarah’s Home, April 25, 2015. The volunteers designed and built an elevated club house, zip line, high bars, dual swings and a tight rope for the home that fosters underage female sex trafficking victims. (Courtesy photo by Pati Nuce)

CGOs volunteer at Sarah's Home

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – Members of the Company Grade Officer’s Council build a playground from the ground up for Sarah’s Home, April 25, 2015. The volunteers designed and built an elevated club house, zip line, high bars, dual swings and a tight rope for the home that fosters underage female sex trafficking victims. (Courtesy photo by Pati Nuce)

CGOs volunteer at Sarah's Home

Published May 13, 2015
By Senior Airman Tiffany DeNault
21st Space Wing Public Affairs

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Team Pete's Company Grade Officer's Council recently gathered volunteers to build a playground at a foster home called Sarah's Home.

Sarah's Home is one of several foster homes for underage female sex trafficking victims. The home specializes in healing, education, restoration and reintegration. According to the on-site counselors, outdoor activities are known to have therapeutic effects on those who have post-traumatic stress disorder. However, since the victims' identities are kept private for their safety, getting to public parks can be difficult.

Sarah's Home was granted $3,000 for the construction project, which is how much swing sets normally cost, but the CGOC knew they could do better.

After surveying the site, the volunteers got to work.

"The CGOC assembled their engineers, designed an entire playground and got the plan approved by Sarah's Home and the foster agency," said Capt. Christian Morgan, CGOC professional development chair. "Because we built everything from scratch, we were able to deliver an elevated clubhouse with a zip line, high bars, dual swings, a tire swing and a tight rope for under the $3,000 budget."

After two days, 26 volunteers and more than 200 man hours, not including the planning process, the project was completed.

"We are all blown away by the scope of our playground," said Pati Nuce, Sarah's Home staff director. "Thank you all so very much for all your time and expertise."

Volunteering is a great way to get involved with the community, learn new skills, and most importantly to help those in need.

"I am tremendously proud of our CGOs and volunteers on what they accomplished to help Sarah's Home," said Morgan.