MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — Want to see your first sergeant get smacked in the face with a pie?
You can help make that happen by donating to the American Red Cross this month.
Sara Marshall, Red Cross field office assistant at Misawa, said donations for the second annual "Pie-in-the-Face Fundraiser" will be collected Friday and again on March 27.
Red Cross personnel will be in the corridor between the AAFES food court and the commissary from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. those days, with jars for each squadron Air Force first sergeant, as well as jars for Army and Navy representatives.
When the Red Cross tallies the final donations, the person who earned the most — and least — will get smacked in the face with a pie at noon on April 1 in front of the base exchange.
Kathryn Lasky, Red Cross spokeswoman, said the money raised goes toward running the Misawa office.
"Our primary mission here is emergency communication and the money goes to the ability to support" the community, she said.
Last year’s event earned the office about $1,500, she said.
And who gets to throw the pies?
"That pleasure" will be auctioned the day of the event, she said.
She also explained that there’s a bit of strategy involved, as evidenced by the first donation collection March 13.
"We got a lot of, ‘Oh, I like him,’ " she said of people’s reactions to getting their first sergeant pied. "But they can sabotage other [first sergeants] by donating to someone else."
And if the first sergeant matches the final donation amount, he can buy himself out of getting hit with a pie, leaving the next person in line in danger.
Master Sgt. Steve Flatt of the 35th Civil Engineer Squadron joked that his airmen "better not donate" in his jar.
He also laid down a challenge to Master Sgt. Bernard Marshall of the 35th Medical Group.
Flatt said his folks would start hitting it hard "when we see the money start rising" from the Medical Group. Marshall said he thinks his airmen will donate; he’s just hoping they put their dollars in another first sergeant’s jar.
