USO NORTHWEST RECEIVES $20,000 GRANT FROM THE BEN B. CHENEY FOUNDATION
December 27th, 2017                                                                     Contact: Gabriel Bowman
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                  360.951.2860
Tacoma, WA - The USO Northwest (USO-NW) has been awarded a generous $20,000 grant by the Ben B. Cheney Foundation in support of the organization's newest facility - the Camp Lewis USO Center.  Grant funds will be used to furnish the Center's Internet Café and Canteen with essential equipment allowing the USO-NW to provide the very best services to our military and their family members.
 
USO-NW's Camp Lewis Center will expand access to USO's unique programs and services to the military members and their families stationed at Fort Lewis. Needs assessments conducted prior to the onset of the project estimated that the new USO center would serve approximately 50,000 service members and their families in the first year of operation as service members stationed on the Fort Lewis side of Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) make up more than 86% of the base's military population.
 
USO-NW serves one of the largest concentrations of military in the U.S., including Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the Defense Department's premiere military installation on the west coast and home to over 40,000 active-duty military and 60,000 family members. USO-NW considers Joint Base Lewis-McChord and the service members and their families who call it home, a valuable and contributing member of the community, and strongly believes that by supporting the well-being of our military community that we are contributing the health and well-being of the entire community.
 
When the new Camp Lewis USO Center opens in January 2018, it will provide a troop lounge with free internet, TVs, computers, games and donated snacks, and serve as a hub for family services and community outreach.  USO Northwest first launched this campaign in 2016 and received tremendous financial support from numerous groups, businesses, foundations and individual donors.  The USO Northwest raised over $250,000 in funds and/or in-kind donations to make the new center possible.    

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About Ben B. Cheney Foundation
The Foundation is active in communities where the Cheney Lumber Company operated. The Foundation assists projects that improve the quality of life in those communities by making grants to a wide range of activities. Mr. Cheney formed the Cheney Lumber Company in 1936 and was involved with the lumber industry until his death in 1971. For more info, go to www.benbcheneyfoundation.org. 
 
About the USO Northwest
For over 75 years, the USO has strengthened America's military service members by keeping them connected to family and loved ones, throughout their service to the nation.  USO Northwest (USO-NW) continues that mission today by serving more than 750,000 service members and their families annually throughout Washington and Oregon.  USO-NW operates two travel-based centers at Sea-Tac International Airport and Portland International Airport along with two installation-based centers on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the Shali USO Center and Camp Lewis USO Center providing traveling and local military service members and their dependent families with all the comforts of home.
 
Two USO-NW Mobile Canteens expand our service delivery by offering the military and their families the same best-in-class support we provide at stationary centers, but in the field during trainings, pierside for deployments and homecomings, and throughout military and civilian locations in the Pacific Northwest.  USO-NW provides support to those who need it most, including morale-boosting and family-strengthening programs, deployment and redeployment support to help servicemen and women adjusting to the duty ahead, resiliency training for families facing multiple deployments, as well as support for families coping with the loss of a family member, Families of the Fallen.
 
USO Northwest is not a government agency, but a private, nonprofit organization that relies solely on private support from individuals, organizations, foundations, corporations and fundraisers to support its activities.  USO-NW does not receive government funding.  USO Northwest is supported through the Combined Federal Campaign #15348, King County Employee Giving Program #9585, and the WA State Combined Fund Drive #0376776.
 
For more information, or to make a tax-deductible contribution to the USO-NW, visit us online at www.USONW.org.