HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE -- Fourteen teams competing for $5,000 went out in the world and made a difference. Engulfing Alamogordo with good works and manual labor, Holloman's Big Give project took manpower out to the community.
Alameda Park Zoo, the Step House, COPE, CAPPED, House of Prayer, residents at Betty Dare Good Samaritan Center, the Boys & Girls Club and more found active teams surrounding their worlds, building and helping as needed.
The winning team was announced during an event Thursday, but it was not only the team that won but also everyone who participated, organizers said.
Winning the prize, easily the noisiest team with shouts and noisemakers, was House Busters made up of 15 members of the 49th Civil Engineering Squadron. The team also took the $500 People's Choice Award supplied by Otero Federal Credit Union.
Most of the teams had made pledges to donate the money back to their causes should they win.
Col. Mike Stapleton, operations group commander, said the participants in the project jumped at the chance to help others.
"You made me think about my life, my inspirations," Stapleton said. "I found myself completely humbled by your character."
"You guys have displayed what is the best thing
Advertisement
about democracy," Alamogordo Mayor Steve Brockett said.
After handing out an oversize prize check to the winning team, a single last voice spoke to those gathered.
"My name is Royce and I am an alcoholic," the man said.
Royce is the manager of the Step House, a halfway house for recovering addicts. The Step House was the project of the winning House Busters team.
With emotion in his voice, Royce said the team helped the facility beyond description. The run down home housing the recovery program was falling apart.
"We struggle to keep the lights on," he said.
House Busters rewired the home, rebuilt a bathroom and most of the kitchen, painted, replaced 37 windows and fixed what they could find. For the whole two weeks of the Big Give project, the team was always around and working, Royce said.
"We had to chase Nellie (Erwin) out at night," he said. "You guys rock."
Story by Elva K. Osterreich, Associate News Editor Alamogordo News
