SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The 50th Force Support Squadron’s Outdoor Recreation continues to revamp its day-to-day operations after COVID-19 forced them temporarily to readjust their mission.
The virus suspended numerous scheduled activities including skiing, snowboarding, kayaking and trips to parks. However, ODR moved their engraving and framing services online April 13 to assist Airmen.
“We’re still here to help the Airmen,” said Juli Yim, 50th FSS Outdoor Recreation director. “We’ve started bringing back some of our operations and we’re currently doing framing and engravings.”
Rather than have Airmen enter their facility and risk potential contamination of COVID-19, Outdoor Recreation is using its website to complete orders.
“We know a lot of people have done some amazing work while we’ve had to stay at home,” she said. “We’re trying to get those accomplishments engraved for the recipients so we can get those back to the units and they can recognize some of those achievements with an actual, tangible award.”
The online process provides ODR the ability to complete its mission while practicing physical distancing guidelines.
“People have been submitting orders, we’ve gotten good contact info and we’re able to contact them and set up times to meet with them,” Yim said. “And we’re not putting our personnel at risk and [the customer] is getting their product.”
Wendy DeRosier, 50th FSS Outdoor recreation assistant, works on the engravings and framings for Airmen and customers to collect.
“I’m able to call my vendors and order stuff and go to the mail room and pick it up and take it to the warehouse where the engraving and picture framing equipment are located,” DeRosier said. “It’s not the same without someone walking into the store and maybe doing a little impulse buying, but everything else is going well.”
Creating products for customers also remains timely as DeRosier said she completes most orders in two weeks.
“It depends on if it’s in stock or if I have to order it,” she said. “Even though some vendors closed some of their warehouses, I still get requests in a swift manner.”
While ODR enjoys providing memorabilia and engravings to Airmen, they’re hoping to offer outdoor recreation services again soon. For now, Yim said they’re playing it by ear.
“I’ve been in contact with a number of other outdoor recreation facilities throughout the world,” Yim said. “We’re all able to communicate and that’s been good. We’re missing being able to be there and help support people and all that fun stuff. For now, we’re doing online orders so people can go to the 50th FSS website to get those.”
For more information visit 50fss.com and select the ‘Arts & Crafts' tab or send requests to Schrieverengraving@gmail.com.