Labadie said, “Whether it’s Operation Homefront, AFRC, anybody in the FSS… there’s a lot of support out in our community for families so just get on the phone and call someone whether you need financial, social or emotional support, or just have a question. Along with their Back to School Brigade and other helpful resources, they also offer a variety of community activities for students and families, including the upcoming Open House and the Family Fun Fest. The Youth Center plays an integral role in supporting the families of Team Minot. The Minot Lion’s Club, a local service club organization branch, also attended the event and offered free vision tests for students, which is an important part of making sure children are able to perform their best in school.

“We never know the struggle that a family is going through financially and so it’s a help for any military family, regardless of rank, to be able to get some relief for the very expensive back to school time that we are in,” said Labadie. The backpacks were handed out to families in need as an effort to ease even a little bit of the financial weight of buying school supplies. Representatives from the Airman and Family Readiness Center, Cub Scouts, Minot AFB Housing, the library, Family Advocacy Program and more attended the Back to School Brigade to offer resources that may be useful to new or current families on base. “Along with that, we have 12 helping agencies that came out and set up info booths to provide resources to families.”

“We were able to get 150 backpacks for military families and we’re distributing them,” said Racquel Labadie, School Liaison Specialist. The event offered free resources and support to military families as children are heading back to school, which can be a hectic (and expensive) time of year. 6, 2021, the Minot Air Force Base Youth Center partnered with national nonprofit Operation Homefront to hold their annual Back to School Brigade. By Courtesy Writer: Rod Wilson, Northern Sentry

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