The team of teams was assembled into one special place for an evening of sharing, bonding, connecting and planning with an eye toward the future.

The Mount Rainier Chapter of the Red Cross, AUSA, Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) and community leaders came together for the second annual "Sip & Sign" event hosted by the Red Cross board of directors May 21, 2014. Held at the Tacoma Golf and Country Club in Lakewood, the mood in the room touched on the heart and spirit of the importance and poignant history of service.

The focus of the evening was straightforward: building resiliency and preparedness. In ever-changing times, this is more than just a theme; it's a reality and common bond that unites everyone.  

U.S. Army Assistant Chief of Staff Col. Lynda Granfield gave an overall feeling of the event.

"This is a unique opportunity to meet civilians in the community, that we may not have the opportunity to have day-to-day interaction with," says Granfield. "The understanding of disaster relief and resiliency responses are good to know."

Chapter Executive Tracy Peacock also summed up the spirit of the festivities which included donated specialty wine from Italy named after the global founder of the Red Cross, Henry Dunant, a lively silent auction that featured some terrific items for bidding, with the proceeds going to the Red Cross efforts and writing thank you notes to deployed soldiers overseas.

>>> Event patrons peruse a wide variety of silent auction items for bidding. Proceeds of the silent auction benefit Red Cross efforts.Photo credit: Kim Thompson

"The Sip & Sign event is truly a grassroots, board driven event," explains Peacock. "We asked ourselves: how can we tell people about the Red Cross? How can we share the importance and the community outreach efforts of our resiliency and preparedness programs for military families? So, we thought, why not throw a party?"

Indeed. For the event patrons, while it was fun to enjoy the wine, tasty treats and good conversation, it was an opportunity to celebrate the strong and committed relationship between the Red Cross, JBLM and other dedicated community partners in the care, appreciation and support of servicemembers and their families.

The American Red Cross has been providing support to the military and their families since its overall inception since 1881. The Mount Rainier Red Cross Chapter, which serves Pierce, Thurston, Lewis, Mason and Grays Harbor counties, has a number of programs to help and support servicemembers and their families. Service to the Armed Forces (SAF) provides support network services and programs that include resiliency and preparedness, emergency communications to active servicemembers and critical support to military hospitals and veteran programs. The Mount Rainier Chapter has satellite offices at JBLM and at Madigan Hospital; at these facilities 220 volunteers have provided more than 60,000 hours of volunteer work to support servicemembers and their families. According to Peacock, through the organization's workshops, briefings and community outreach efforts, the Red Cross has touched the lives of 19,000 servicemembers and their families.

Brig. Gen. C.J. Turenne, deputy commanding general of I Corps, and the event's special guest speaker, spoke of the enduring relationship with the Red Cross of past and present, and defined the true nature of readiness and resiliency in today's ever-changing climate.

"What does ready and resilient mean?" says Turenne. "It means many things to different people. At JBLM, there is serious work going on with readiness and resiliency. We all go through stressors; so how do we cope with these stressors?"

Turenne continues, "There are three key components of support for this campaign: preparedness, coping with deployment and family reconnection.

Readiness is accomplished by being prepared. Being resilient is to face and cope with adversity and to learn and grow from setbacks.

The U.S. Army has been at war for 12 years and that has made an impact and taken a toll. There has to be a rotation of the war mindset to the extradition mindset. With us drawing down in Iraq and Afghanistan, more servicemembers are at home and reconnecting with their families. There is a financial change due to non-deployment and many don't know when the next deployment is going to happen.  There is now a change in culture and the need to adapt to a changing environment.

While the U.S. Army had lots of resources for families, we can't do it alone. This is really where the team approach comes in. There's work to do and a real thirst in the chain of command, regardless of which branch of service, to get this right."

Turenne noted that there are more than 250 programs and services linked to readiness and resiliency on the installation; this number does not consider all of the community programs out there.

He shared with event patrons that they need to work to together to streamline communications and to address redundancies and gaps in a changing and complex environment was important. Training and education using a holistic approach and eliminating the stigma of issues are essential to improving the ability to cope and to make resiliency a part of every day life. He noted that while there's still much to be done and that this work takes time and patience, he wholeheartedly believed in the "team of teams," right there in the room, and their ability to support the campaign with energy and hard work.

"The readiness and resiliency campaign is a top priority of the U.S. Army. It's critical to sustain a healthy force into the future and sustaining unity of focus to achieve and reach the upper range of everyone's potential," says Turenne.

To learn more about the Mount Rainier Red Cross Chapter's programs, services and how you can help, visit http://www.redcross.org/wa/tacoma.