Author: MilitaryFamilyMuseum
One Community Auto Adds Five Charities to its Vehicle Management Service
Contact: Gary Peterson
505-379-3432 gary@onecommunityauto.com
One Community Auto Adds Five Charities
to Its Vehicle Donation Management Service
Handles all aspects of donating and selling donated vehicles.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Albuquerque NM, November 23, 2020. One Community Auto, a local used car dealer with a mission to support our community, today announced that OCA added five new non-profits to its list of charities, now serving 53 area non-profits for which it manages all aspects of vehicle donations. In the seven years since the program began, OCA has helped local charities raise over $1 million to help support their various missions, and, even in the midst of the pandemic the numbers are still growing.
The recently contracted charities are:
• Veterans Integration Centers – The VIC began 15 years ago as a program to bring
- Veterans all over New Mexico from the streets to a place for healing and creating new lives. Homeless and home-insecure Veterans are housed in the VIC’s Transitional Living Facility in the Southeast Heights, where they receive a number of services—medical, psychological, working on job skills and interpersonal skills that will help them create a new stable and productive life. VIC moves those Veterans who are ready into permanent housing and continues to work with them to build confidence in their ability to thrive. Headquartered in Albuquerque and Alamogordo, VIC also runs a weekday shuttle downtown to transport all who need help to various organizations and services for the homeless. VIC also provides a food bank in their NE Heights Central Avenue location for those in need of nutritious food. Learn more at www.nmvic.org
• The Museum of the American Military Family – With the message of “We Also Serve”, MAMF, temporarily located in Tijeras, NM, shares the stories of military families from all branches of our Armed Services whose great sacrifices support our strong military. The Museum, visited by people throughout the U.S. and other countries, focuses on the unique lives of families that may move numerous times as their active-duty military family member is transferred from base to base. And, on those who remain behind when family members are deployed to combat zones, having to manage family life without their spouses’ presence. The Museum develops numerous programs throughout the year to continue sharing stories, experiences and challenges met by military families serving worldwide. www.militaryfamilymuseum.org
• Next Step Ministries – Their mission is to provide help and hope to men who have taken steps to move from a damaged or broken life to a life that glorifies God. The men served by Next Step Ministries are, first, men who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Second, they are men who have stumbled in their lives, resulting in homelessness, substance abuse, incarceration, broken relationships, or perhaps long-term unemployment, but who have taken significant steps toward stability and restoration. Learn more athttps://www.nextstepnm.com/
• IncredAble Adaptive MMA – A non-profit associated with Jackson-Wink MMA, its mission is to create and provide opportunities in MMA for youths and teens with physical and environmental/at risk challenges. They help these young people who are often overlooked train in and excel in the sport of MMA. This focused training helps empower clients to be able to defend themselves, as well as to become more fit and build physical strength. Learn more at www.incredableadaptivemma.org
• FIFABQ – Food is Free Albuquerque—A nonprofit that encourages the social empowerment through the growing and sharing of fresh food. Through their efforts of gleaning local backyard trees and privately owned orchards, they feed hundreds of New Mexicans in need. Food is Free is a global movement started in Austin Texas as front-yard gardens. The Albuquerque chapter was started in 2014 by two woman looking to make preserves for their own families. Through this act they discovered a hidden abundance of fruit trees and took this newfound information to begin giving food away. Since then FIFABQ has grown multiple programs, providing unique ways to bring fresh healthy food to citizens in Albuquerque and beyond. Every action driven by their motto
- “Fresh Food is a human right”. Visit their website at www.fifabq.org
OCA makes the entire vehicle donation experience so incredibly simple. Make one call, that’s all a donor needs to do! OCA will…
- • Pick up the donated vehicle
- • Prepare all legal paperwork
- • Give the donor proof of the donation
- • When the vehicle sells, send a donation letter for filing taxes
OCA owner Major Gary Peterson, USAF, Ret., completed his military mission in hot spots in the Middle East and served at the Pentagon prior to retiring and opening a used car dealership committed to helping support his community. In the seven years OCA has been managing vehicle donations for non-profits, the number charities he serves has grown from a handful to over 50.
In order to move the sale of donated vehicles that his company repairs and refurbishes more quickly, Peterson established Route 66 Auctions and is holding monthly online auctions, www.rt66auctions.hibid.com, to ensure that monies are available to the non-profits much earlier than waiting for car lot sales. For more information about the process and the many charities served by One Community Auto please visit https://www.onecommunityauto.com/services
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One Community Auto, “Where everybody wins!”, is located at 300 Wyoming SE, Albuquerque NM 87123. Call 505-379-3432 for more information on vehicle donations.
We miss you!
If you’re planning to visit us, please make an appointment 24 hours in advance, and if you can’t come visit in person, check out our blogs and podcasts or follow us on Facebook. View one of our many blogs, like https://weservedtoo.wordpress.com, our podcast at https://militaryfamilymuseum.podbean.com and our website, https://militaryfamilymuseum.org
In order to keep you and us safe, your hosts will have taken New Mexico’s Covid-Safe Training.
New Mexico Proclaims November to be Veterans & Military Families Month
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen.
As we continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, I would like to take a moment to issue a proclamation proclaiming November as Veterans and Military Families Month in New Mexico.
I urge all veterans and eligible dependents of veterans to make sure you’ve filed for your eligible VA or state veterans’ benefits—or to ensure your benefits are up to date. These are benefits you’ve earned through your service for our country, and I want to make sure you are receiving everything you’ve earned. Please contact the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services for help with this filing process.
Office address:
New Mexico Dept. of Veterans Services
Office of the Cabinet Secretary
406 Don Gaspar Ave.
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Attn: Ray Seva (505) 362-6089
We have hundreds of “Letters Home” on our blog
CALL FOR STORIES: SCHOOLING WITH UNCLE SAM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
On October 14, 2021, the Museum of the American Military Family will observe the 75th anniversary of the opening of Defense Department Dependents Schools in Europe and the Far East by releasing a commemorative anthology, “SCHOOLING WITH UNCLE SAM.”
The anthology will not focus on the school system history or governing policies but on personal memories–what it was like to work or study in the school system, to live and work in a foreign country or military installation and move from year to year to another country or state – the mundane, funny, or tragic events and interactions that made for a memorable experience. Stories should be about a certain time, event, or experience about school/work/life with DoDEA (or with its predecessor organizations such as DoDDS, USDESEA, DEG, etc.)
This is a chance to preserve a unique history and to be a part of it. It’s an opportunity to share a personal look at a world-wide school system serving America’s world-wide interests and assuring that your involvement with it will be recognized.
Your story should be first-person and can be as long or short as you choose. Please also consider including black-and-white photos to help illustrate your memoir. You can submit up to three different pieces for the book.
Authors included in the anthology will receive a free copy of the book in lieu of payment. All stories become the property of the Museum of the American Military Family Special Collections Library. Proceeds from the sale of the book will be used to help the Museum continue to bring exhibits and programming to the museum community free of charge.
Story suggestions … a unique classroom, your daily commute to school, your host nation neighborhood, a military “incident” in or around school, a favorite host nation restaurant or field trip experience, a celebrity or high ranking or local dignitary visiting your school, something funny at school. Or an event memorable to you.
You need not be an accomplished writer to participate. MAMF will provide minor editing to sharpen your contribution.
The deadline for submissions is Friday, July 2, 2021. The anthology will be released at a public anniversary observance in October of 2021.
To submit a story, or for more information, please e-mail the submissions to OlsonAllen@msn.com.
To learn more about the museum visit the website: www.militaryfamilymuseum.org and follow us on FB www.facebook.com/MuseumoftheAmericanMilitaryFamily.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SOME REMARKABLE MEMORIES!
TELLING THE STORY OF MILITARY FAMILIES
As the only museum in the country dedicated to collecting and preserving the stories, documents, photographs, and artifacts of the mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, and spouses of those who serve and have served in America’s military, the Museum of the American Military Family (MAMF)includes a permanent exhibition about the history of DoDEA since its founding and a collection of teacher-collected artifacts from around the world.
Founded by former DoDEA teacher and student, Circe Olson Woessner is the daughter of long-time DoDEA staffer and WWII veteran and is a military wife and mother and brings a realistic and enriching perspective to the unique challenges and achievements of military families.
Besides presenting permanent and revolving exhibits about the life style of military family members and the educators who support them, MAMF conducts town hall meetings about military and military veteran issues and interacts with a world-wide audience through a variety of social media and through a series of audio and video podcasts.
MAMF has been recognized in each of the past three years with Awards of Excellence by the American Association of State and Local History including an Albert Corey Award for exceptionally distinguished programming. It is affiliated with the American Alliance of Museums, the New Mexico Association of Museums, and the Museum Collaborative Council of Albuquerque.
MAMF’s Operation Footlocker is a mini mobile museum treasure chest of memories donated by military families, military brats, and teachers from the overseas schools of the Defense Department. The fleet of eight footlockers travels around the USA – to brat functions, to schools, to libraries, to teacher and military reunions – anywhere people gather who want to learn more about the military family experience.
Dr. Woessner is now looking forward to next October and the 75th anniversary of the establishments of DoDEA schools around the world. She is planning to publish an anthology of stories by teachers, past and present, about their unique experiences teaching and working in civilian-type schools on military installations throughout the States and around the world. Through DoDEA and MAMF websites, she will issue a call for stories along with guidelines for submission in October 2020.
MAMF has already published a series of such anthologies: War Child, a collection of stories by adults who grew up as children in a war zone; Front Lines to the Homefront, stories by adults reflecting on their experiences in or around war; On Freedom’s Frontier: Life on the Fulda Gap, stories by veterans and family members who lived and worked along one of the world’s most sensitive potential battlegrounds.
Their anthology SHOUT! Sharing our Truth, by LGBTQ+ veterans and veteran family members about their service in the military before and after Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, has been produced as a play performed in Richmond, Virginia, and scheduled for performances in San Francisco and Providence next year. MAMF has also turned the anthology into a documentary film.
Visit website www.militaryfamilymuseum.org to learn more about MAMF and what it is doing to honor military families and the schools that serve them and to provide a place for scholars to learn the history of the millions of families who have also “served” our country.
Location Update!
The museum’s work is conducted at its new MAMF Workspace in Albuquerque, NM. For an appointment, please contact the museum at (505) 504-6830.
The museum is a volunteer run 501c3 nonprofit museum which depends on donations and grants to bring free and low-cost programming to the public. Please consider a donation to MAMF!
We have two new team members!
Our Artist in Residence for Photography
Arin Yoon is a Korean American army spouse and documentary photographer, visual artist, and arts educator currently stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Her work explores issues on the military, family, women, education and identity.
She has exhibited at venues such as the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in Seoul, Daegu Arts Center, Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, Anthology Film Archives and A.I.R. Gallery in New York, iam8bit Gallery in Los Angeles, and the Chicago Humanities Institute. Her work is a part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Sexual Slavery in South Korea. She is a member of Women Photograph.
Arin’s work has been published in The Wrath-Bearing Tree, Reuters, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Korea Times, The Gothamist, The Record, Character Media, and The Queens Chronicle.
Her current project, To Be At War, is funded by grants from We, Women, The National Military Family Association, and the City of Leavenworth. She has been a recipient of the Darkroom Residency Program through Baxter Street Camera Club of New York and has received The René Peñaloza-Galvan Memorial Award for excellence in teaching from the Brooklyn College Community Partnership.
Arin holds a BA in English Language and Literature and a BA in Political Science from the University of Chicago, and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in Photography, Video and Related Media. Her work can be seen at arinyoon.com
Dr. Cheryl Avila, Museum Storyteller, was raised in an American military family. Her father retired from the Army after 32 years of service. Her two brothers are also retired Army officers and have raised American military families of their own. After college, Cheryl served in the Army for four years, her daughter is in ROTC at Emory University, and her son attends the United States Military Academy at West Point. While serving as an MI officer during the day, Cheryl tutored soldiers wanting their GED in the evening. After leaving the Army Cheryl pursued a Master’s and PhD in Education and founded Math Doctor, a learning center in Palm Bay, Florida. As the Museum’s Storyteller, Cheryl believes that connecting through stories is important for children of military families, both young and old, to feel as if they have a place in this world, a “tribe” that understands what they went through.