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United States Air Force Academy

COLORADO PARENTS' CLUB

MONTHLY UPDATE

JANUARY 2021 ISSUE

UPCOMING EVENTS

5-6 Feb 2021 Valentine's Goodie Bag Assembly. Please sign up HERE and join the fun! We can't do this without you!

11 April 2021 - CPC End of Year Celebration. Currently, we have reserved Doolittle Hall for this celebration and are hoping for an in-person event. If we are able to have an in-person event, your CPC membership includes a free ticket for your cadet and a guest to this event. CPC membership also includes a special gift for the Seniors. Even if we are not able to have an in-person event, Seniors will still receive their gifts.

April 2021 - Spring General Membership Meeting/Elections. We will be electing new members to the Executive Board. More information will be forthcoming.

1-2 May 2021 - Spring Finals' Goodie Bag Assembly & Delivery.

26 May 2021 - Graduation

12 June 2021 - New Appointee Event. We are hopeful for an in-person event at WhirlyBall

24 June 2021 - In-processing Day for the class of 2025. We are hoping we can host our traditional I-Day Picnic.

CPC Welcome Back Banner

CPC sent a "Welcome Back" banner for the effort by General Clark to create a welcoming atmosphere for the cadets as they returned from winter break. A huge thanks to Designer Signs & Banners for doing a rush job for us at the last minute and for offering a military discount. Banners were hung in the Field House as the cadets returned, and they are now hanging in Mitchell Hall.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM THE

USAFA PARENT LIAISON

Joint Chiefs of Staff memo regarding the Capitol breach

I have been getting requests to have flags flown over USAFA but due to our current COVID posture, the Cadet Honor Guard is not accepting flag flying requests at this time. They are limited to only mandatory duty details that minimize contact between the cadets for extended periods of time.

If you missed the Senior leader call with General Clark on 14 January, you can watch it here.

2021 Spring Calendar

NEW ADDRESS?

Have you moved since you joined CPC? Please update your address with our secretaries so you can continue to receive CPC communication!

Contact the CPC Co-Secretaries

From the Co-Presidents

Hello CPC families!

Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed your holidays and time with your cadet(s). It's hard to believe our firsties will be graduating in just four quick months! It's been fun to see all the social media posts about AFSC selections, and we look forward to learning where our Class of 2021 cadets will be headed for their first assignments.

Speaking of graduation, that momentous day also marks the beginning of our new CPC board year. We will have many positions to fill at our Spring General Membership meeting. This is where you come in, especially our 2023 and 2024 members! We know this has been a very unusual year with fewer CPC activities, but we are hoping for more of our normal activities during the next school year. Is there a role you're interested in assuming? These next four months will allow you to participate in a background role as you learn the ins and outs of that position.

Elected Board Positions to be filled:

Secretary - Click to see a list of duties . This job can be shared and easily accomplished by someone not local to Colorado Springs. Please reach out to our Secretaries for more information on this position.

Treasurer - Do you love numbers? Then this is the job for you! The Treasurer records all revenue and expenses on a cash-basis using Quick Books On-Line. Accounts are reconciled on a monthly basis. The Treasurer provides an Income Expenses and Budget report and the USAFA CPC Journal report at the monthly Executive Board phone call meetings and the General Membership meetings. Contact our current Treasurers for more information about this position.

Fundraising Chair - In this capacity you'll be responsible for overseeing the Goodie Bag Chair(s) and any other club fundraising efforts. In addition, you'll be reaching out to our community partners to seek funds for some of our activities (Tailgates, Colorado Night, etc.) and track donations received throughout the year. Contact our Fundraising Chair for more details.

Event Coordinator - The Event Coordinator oversees volunteers and ensures that each of our CPC events has a Committee Chair. This position provides guidance for booking facilities, speakers, and planning menus. Overall, the Event Coordinator helps to make sure that each event runs smoothly.

Other Positions to be filled:

2021 Colorado All Service Academy Ball Chair - the Air Force will be hosting CASAB on 29 December 2021! The chair will work with the multi-service academy committee for planning the event and securing funding from various community sponsors. If event planning is your passion, we need you!

Webmaster - The Webmaster is responsible for maintaining the website, updating data, products, and information using a very easy to use web tool. The Webmaster often pulls reports and works with the Goodie Bag team, Secretary, Treasurer, and/or special event coordinators. The framework of the website is already set up, so maintaining and updating can be done in just a few hours a month. This is another position easily filled by someone not local to the Colorado Springs area. Contact our Webmaster for more information.

End of Year Celebration Co-Chair: We still need a 2023 or 2024 family to work along side Dan and Denise Bruder to coordinate the details for the Colorado Parents' Club End of Year Celebration. This fun event will be held in April and will honor our seniors and celebrate all that our club has done over the past year. Please reach out to the Bruders if you'd like to help!

New Appointee Event Chair. We also need a 2023 or 2024 family to work with Colleen and Gary Foster to coordinate details for the for the 2021 New Appointee Event on 12 June. We are hoping for a fun, in-person event at Whirly Ball to welcome the new Appointees for the Class of 2025. Please reach out to Colleen Foster for more information.

I-Day Chair. We are hoping we can host our traditional picnic this year. We will need an organized individual (or team) to lead this signature event. This committee chair will work closely with the AOG and USAFA senior leadership on this joint effort. The I-Day chair leads the team of CPC volunteers to cover everything from food prep and serving, to volunteer coordinating, to the letter writing campaign, etc.

2021 Tailgate Committee Chair - Our CPC tailgates have become legendary, and we are hopeful that we can get back to having them next year. The Tailgate chair is responsible for reserving the tailgate site, coordinating delivery of a storage pod, and arranging the movement of the tailgate equipment and supplies from the CPC storage unit to the pod. During the season, the chair coordinates signs ups for the volunteer positions and sign ups for side dishes, desserts, and drinks. The chair is also responsible for coordinating the purchase of meat and supplies needed for each home game. At the end of the season, all supplies and equipment are moved back to the CPC storage unit.

Please contact the Presidents to volunteer for any of these positions.

We look forward to working with you to help enrich the Academy experience of our cadets!

-Paul and Kathy Puseman,

Co-Presidents

Meet the Board

Each month we are highlighting an Executive Board or Committee Chair member/s so you can get to know our behind the scenes team that is committed to lending their time and talents to supporting the Colorado Parents’ Club and our Colorado Cadets.

This month we are introducing our Goodie Bag Co-Chairs, Stacy Prater and Nico Mason.

Stacy Prater lives with her husband, Gary Prater (Retired Army Space Operations Officer – now a Principal Systems Engineer for Centauri Corp.) in Monument Colorado. Stacy is also retired Army, serving as an Intelligence/Counterintelligence Officer and Russian linguist for 21 years in the Army Reserves. Stacy now works as the Finance Director for The Word for the World Bible Translation company. Co-Chairing the Goodie Bag committee is Stacy’s first position with the CPC.

Their son, C3C Michael Prater, is majoring in Astronautical Engineering and plans on serving in the Space Force. He is a Crew Commander for the Cadet Space Operations Detachment and is on the Triathlon Team. Stacy and Gary also have a daughter that just graduated with a Public Relations degree from the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) who will begin pursuing her graduate degree in London this year. As a family they enjoy skiing, traveling and hiking.

Nico Mason is from Italy and has lived here for the past 17 years. Nico has two boys. C2C Michele Mason is in the Class of 2022 at the AFA in Squadron 39. Her other son is a 2nd LT in the Air Force - currently in Indiana for Medical School.

This is Nico's 3rd year working for CPC. Her job is shopping for the items that go inside the Goodie Bags - which she thinks is lots of fun!

COLORADO PARENTS' CLUB

2020-21 EXECUTIVE BOARD

CO-PRESIDENTS | Paul and Kathy Puseman ('22)

CO-VICE-PRESIDENTS |Steve and Joy Johnson ('21 and '23)

CO-SECRETARIES| Mark and Christina Coffey ('23)

CO-TREASURERS | Derek and Lisa de Bastos ('22)

EVENT COORDINATOR | Claudia Lawrence ('21)

FUNDRAISING CHAIR | Jane Morgan ('21)

WEBMASTER | Donna Bajek ('21)