Robin Horan — shown with her husband, Spc. Joseph Horan — was recognized as the Area I volunteer of the quarter Tuesday on Camp Red Cloud, South Korea. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)
CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — A group of 2nd Infantry Division soldiers who spent 144 hours of their own time teaching English to South Korean children was recognized as Area I’s volunteer unit of the year on Tuesday.
The Headquarters Headquarters Company, Division Support Command soldiers received the award during a ceremony at Camp Red Cloud’s Mitchell’s Restaurant.
Capt. Matthew Welch, 34, of Winchester, Ind., accepted the award for work through last month. He said the unit adopted three Tongduchon elementary schools — Shinchon, Topdong and Soyo — as part of the United Service Organizations’ Virtues Program to teach English to South Korean children. Fifteen soldiers met Saturdays with third- and fourth-graders and organized a bowling party and Christmas party for the children, Welch said.
“They learned about South Korean culture and had a lot of fun,” Welch said of the soldiers.
Sgt. 1st Class James Stout, who deployed to Iraq with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team last year, was named individual volunteer of the year. Before deploying, he earned two volunteer-of-the-quarter awards for teaching English to South Korean orphans, officials said.
Area I volunteer of the quarter from January to April 2005 was Robin Horan, 24, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. She came to South Korea in October 2003 with her husband, Spc. Joseph Horan, 24, of the Camp Casey-based Company E, 302nd Brigade Support Battalion. Horan, who is not command-sponsored, said that after settling in Tongduchon, her volunteer activities included becoming an Army Family Team Building instructor, teaching soldiers and their families about military life. She also taught cardiopulmonary resuscitation as an American Red Cross health and safety instructor. With Army Community Services, she taught English to South Koreans and helped newly arrived soldiers with paperwork.
Horan said a highlight of her work was at Camp Casey in summer 2004, serving cookies and drinks with the Red Cross to 2nd Brigade Combat Team soldiers waiting to fly to Iraq.
“To be able to talk to them and know the guys who were going to be there brought the war closer to home. … I’m following their progress,” said Horan. She gets regular e-mails from 2nd ID soldiers in Iraq and keeps in touch with friends who’ve been injured there, she said.
The Area I volunteer unit for the quarter was 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, which contributed more than 3,000 hours of volunteer support to the My Home Orphanage and Shalom House. Regiment soldiers taught English; coordinated a drive to collect toys, bikes and bags of clothes for the orphans; coordinated with the Yongsan Thrift shop for a $2,000 donation to buy two washing machines for the orphanage; and helped plow fields around the orphanage for potato planting, officials said.
Bill Kopaku, deputy to the Camp Red Cloud garrison commander, said volunteers in Area I increased from 238 contributing 6,000 hours in 2004 to 410 contributing 8,000 hours this year.
