A Week in Arizona

A group of midshipmen from the Midshipman Action Group is in Tuscon, Arizona this for spring break, helping the Pascua Yaqui Tribe's Boys and Girls Club with a variety of projects. 

March 15: We spent the morning with our hosts hiking about 7 miles. After our hike we checked into the Boys and Girls Club and got settled. We headed to Gates Pass to view the sunset then headed back to the Holmes Tuttle BGC for the night. Everyone was super excited to meet the kids.

March 16: We woke up at 0630 to cook breakfast for everyone. We then headed off to the Pascua Yaqui Boys and Girls Club at 0900. For the first hour we helped organize the clubhouse and clean their refrigerator. The kids started to arrive and we naturally split up into smaller groups. One group helped organize the library and the others played pool with the kids. They were amazing! We spent a lot of time outside playing basketball and enjoying the warm weather. The club itself is quite small and there isn't any room to run around. At the end of the day we decided to play a massive Capture the Flag game that got everyone involved. It was pretty intense. We headed back to the Holmes Tuttle BGC for dinner and hanging out. 

March 17: We spent the morning exploring downtown Tucson and the University of Arizona. Afterwards, we went back to the Boys and Girls Club to continue to play with the kids. They love playing pool and being outside.

March 18: We started a garden for the Boys and Girls Club. There had been a garden about 2-3 years prior but everything had been dried up so we had to start over by digging out land, putting in soil and plants, adding a fence, and figuring out the irrigation system. In the afternoon we went to the park to play field games with the kids. We noticed they lacked some equipment so we stopped at Walmart to pick up some toys. Our group is bonding extremely well and having a great time. During the evening, the entire group went out to an authentic Mexican restaurant. 

March 19: We went back to the Boys and Girls Club to finish our garden. We played a 5-on-5 basketball game with the kids and lost. We were given a tour of their home and talked about their life, social issues, and their future. We advocated for the Naval Academy and suggested looking into enlistment as well. The Boys and Girls Club was very generous and treated us to lunch. 

Mids Recognized at Annapolis Town Hall Meeting

Several midshipmen from the Midshipman Action Group were recently recognized for their work with local school-age students at a Town Hall Meeting with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

"What an amazing opportunity to not only hear Secretary Arne Duncan speak and explain the state of the education system but to also listen to the parents of children in the Anne Arundel school system and the endeavors they face every day," said MIDN 3/C Kevin  McGinty. "Being able to hear the frustrations of parents and the insight of Secretary Duncan only filled my passion for education even more."

MAG midshipmen with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

More than 200 midshipmen participate in the Mids for Kids program each year, volunteering their free time throughout the week to visit local elementary and middle schools. The mids read to kindergarten classes, attend physical education classes with students and do one-on-one tutoring in a variety of subjects.

"Mids for Kids is also an opportunity for midshipmen to be a solid role model and mentor for kids that are at such a crucial age in their development," said McGinty. "I've seen kids get overlooked because they are deemed a lost cause, so I just try and make whatever difference I can because I know first hand what that can feel like."

The midshipmen recognized at the Town Hall Meeting work with students at Bates Middle School in Annapolis.

"Volunteering in a community that fully embodies the sentiment that it takes a whole village to raise a child is exceptionally rewarding," said MIDN 2/C Gavin Fuller. "It is truly an honor to be involved with the Mids for Kids program."

Listening to the parents and Secretary Duncan at the Town Hall meeting gave the midshipmen an idea of how important their work is to the community.

"I was amazed by how much community involvement can affect a school, whether it be a parent who is involved in their children's education, or a midshipman helping out in the classroom. I had no idea that Mids for Kids had such a large effect on schools, and it gives me a feeling of fulfillment knowing that I am a part of this program that is working for something much larger than I had anticipated," said MIDN 3/C Drew Brenn.

MAG Helps Get Annapolis Students Excited About Physical Fitness

Members of the Midshipman Action Group have been working with the Mighty Milers program to help get young students excited about physical fitness.

The Mighty Milers is an after school running program sponsored by Annapolis Recreation and Parks. The 6-week program introduces elementary school students to physical fitness through after school training.

The program culminates in an annual track meet in November. The midshipmen from MAG helped train the students, and they – along with the USNA Marathon Team – helped cheer the students on during the Nov. 12 meet.

“We engaged the kids in running drills and games with the goal in mind of running a mile at the track meet,” said  MIDN 1/C Blake Hamilton. “All the kids completed their mile at the track meet.”

Visit Annapolis Recreation and Parks’ Facebook page for more photos.

Midshipmen Collect 60,504 Pounds of Food for Anne Arundel County

The Midshipman Action Group along with the Naval Academy Chaplains Office collected 60,504 pounds of food for the Anne Arundel County Food and Resource Bank during the 2014 Harvest for the Hungry Food and Funds Drive.

Harvest for the Hungry is an annual food drive sponsored by the Anne Arundel County Food and Resource Bank to help low income families with meals and other basic needs year round.

The Food and Resource Bank not only collects food but other resources like clothes, furniture and other household items to help those in need.

“One in eight families in Maryland and one in three children in Anne Arundel County are food insecure,” said Midshipman 1st Class Gabrielle Dimaapi, Harvest for the Hungry project leader.

USNA and the Midshipman Action Group partnered with Anne Arundel Public Schools for the Harvest for the Hungry: Kids Helping Kids campaign to raise money, food, supplies and awareness for those in need in Maryland. In 2013 midshipmen contributed more two thirds of the total amount of food donated to the food bank. 

MAG collected food during sporting events, held drive competitions throughout the Brigade of Midshipman, and turned the food drive into a friendly competition between companies within the brigade.

“The food drive is important to the county and Maryland. We wanted to make sure the midshipmen wanted to give so we turned it into a friendly rivalry between companies,” said Midshipmen 3rd Class Megan Rosenberger, assist Harvest for the Hungry project leader. “The midshipmen collected food all month long and throughout that month we weighed the food in King Hall at the Anchor.”

The 4th Company "Four Horsemen" won the competition with a total of 2,767 pounds of food.

A food bank truck made repeated trips to the academy to gather the food during the month of October, after learning from last year that one truck was not enough for the midshipmen.

“It is good for the midshipmen to see what they have done to help the community,” said Dimaapi. “A lot of hard work and volunteering went into making this happen and it could not have been done without the help of the brigade. They are the ones to who need to he highlighted.”

With the help of the midshipmen, the food bank distributed more than $1.6 million in food to the needy during fiscal 2013.

See more photos at the USNA Flickr site.

Midshipmen Making a Difference at Anne Arundel Medical Center

Post by MIDN 3/C Ray Hernandez

Through the coordination of the Midshipman Action Group (MAG) and the Navy Medicine Club, about 25 Naval Academy midshipmen have been selected to volunteer at the Anne Arundel Medical Center.  

To be part of this program, students are required to fill out an application.  Students chosen to participate devote three hours every other week on Fridays and Sundays to work in different departments within the hospital.

These departments include ER, Heart and Neuro, Pediatric ER, NICU, Clinical, and Patient Visitation.  Students are assigned to their departments for the whole semester.  The goal of this MAG project is to make the lives of the nurses and support staff a lot easier by assisting them with smaller tasks.

Midshipmen benefit from this training by getting exposed to a fast-paced environment, while gaining an appreciation of support services. Five out of the 25 midshipmen are from 16th Company.  MIDN 3/C Sonya Ye, of 16th Company, works specifically with the NICU department and volunteers her time doing smaller tasks such as changing diapers, doing laundry, and preparing milk bottles.

As midshipmen and students, it is difficult to do much more work on top of an already busy schedule, but MIDN Ye appreciates her ability to make the nurses and the hospital staff’s day-to-day routine even the slightest bit more fluid.  She also enjoys getting to know the faculty at Anne Arundel, as well as the long term patients.

The Midshipman Action Group volunteered over 24,000 hours of service during the last academic year.  They spearhead efforts such as Harvest for the Hungry food drive, Mids for Kids and the 2014 bone marrow registration drive.

Midshipman Action Group Honored for Record Donation

Post by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tyler Caswell

The Anne Arundel County Food and Resource Bank honored the U.S. Naval Academy’s Midshipman Action Group (MAG) for contributing more than 61,000 pounds of food during the 2013 Harvest for the Hungry Food and Funds Drive.

Mr. Bruce Michalec (left), director of the Anne Arundel County Food Bank gives
a plaque of recognition to Ensign Soon Kwon, Midshipman 1st Class Gabby
DiMaapi, and Midshipman 3rd Class Megan Rosenberger for their work with
the 2013 Harvest for the Hungry campaign.

The Maryland Department of Education-sponsored campaign encourages donations of money and food to help families in need of assistance. The median income for people in the workforce of Anne Arundel County is $41,876 and when that amount is tied to the Maryland self sufficiency standard of $58,048, there remains a gap of $16,172.

In the last six years, Anne Arundel County has contributed the most donations of all the state’s counties, and MAG contributed more than two-thirds of the 91,000 pounds collected in 2013.

“Maryland has more than 28,000 people who are food insufficient, a third of those being children,” said Teresa Tudor, Harvest for the Hungry coordinator. “The amount of food Midshipmen collected truly helped thousands of families make sure they could feed their children every meal. We would not be as successful without the partnership with USNA and the Midshipman Action Group.”

MAG collected food during sporting events, held drive competitions throughout the Brigade of Midshipman, and brought last year’s total donation to more than donations from 2011 and 2012  combined.

“Midshipmen sacrifice their limited free time to give back to the community.” said Ensign Soon Kwon, a 2013 USNA graduate who coordinated last year’s drive. “In addition to volunteering to serve their country, Midshipmen are giving more than what anyone has asked for by volunteering and donating.”

With one of the harshest winters on record, MAG engaged the brigade and Naval Academy chaplains to collect record donations of food to replenish food bank shelves for those most in need in the community.

“It was a season when the shelves were bare due to weather-related need and a county-wide drop in food donations,” said Miriam Stanicic, USNA’s community relations director. “Stepping in to fill that food gap was the goal that was set and met by the Naval Academy family with tremendous food deliveries, truckload after truckload. Service to the community at large is what the Naval Academy is all about.”

After a week of trucks transporting food from USNA, MAG contributions largely filled the Food Resource Bank’s 3,750 sq. foot facility.

“When the Anne Arundel County Food Bank said that the total food collected at the Naval Academy filled half of their large facility, Midshipmen were proud that more families in Anne Arundel County had the opportunity to receive more food than the years before,” said Kwon.

MAG will continue its efforts by supporting the Harvest for the Hungry: Kids Helping Kids Campaign which is slated to run from Oct. 13 through Oct. 31. For more information visit www.aacps.org.

USNA Midshipmen Participate in the National Day of Service

Post by MC2 Jonathan Correa

The U.S. Naval Academy Midshipman Action Group paid tribute to those lost in the 9/11 terrorist attacks during a ceremony at the Maryland World War II Memorial in Annapolis, Maryland, Sept. 13.

 More than 100 midshipmen took part in the September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance, a day that was established as a way to remember and pay tribute to the 9/11 victims, survivors and those who rose up in response to the attacks through community service.

In 2009, Congress designated it under law.

After the ceremony, the midshipmen spent the day helping to clean up the memorial and Jonas Green State Park along the Severn River.

"Serving those who served and growing our own model of service is the life we have chosen as midshipmen," said Midshipman 2nd Class Zachary Dannelly, the coordinator for the event.

Retired Army Col. Ken McCreedy was the keynote speaker at the ceremony, calling on the midshipmen to recommit to the call to service. After his speech and a moment of silence, midshipmen picked up trash, planted flowers and trees, cleaned up weeds, trimmed hedges and moved rocks back alongside the ditches.

"This is more than just serving the environment," said Dannelly. "It is serving all the veterans, who have come from Maryland, by cleaning up the War World II Memorial."

The memorial pays tribute to the more than 287,000 sons and daughters of Maryland who answered the call of duty, nearly 6,500 of whom gave their lives.

For many midshipmen, it was inspiring to see others taking part in this event.

"I think this event was a great time for us. I know it was for me," said Midshipmen 1st Class Megan Lewis. "To see how many dedicated their time to serve shows how much they care and how much this day means to them."

"For me the reason I came to the USNA and the reason I chose to serve is that I wanted to give back," said Dannelly. "I know being born in the U.S. is the biggest blessing you can ever have, and I really think that having the opportunity to serve like this, to serve at the World War II Memorial and for the 9/11 Day of Service, really brings it back to why we were able to wake up this morning in a free country."

Follow more MAG events at https://www.facebook.com/MidshipmanActionGroup.