Photo By Nell King | Andrea Barreiro, posing here for a portrait Feb. 3 on the Fort Myer portion of Joint...... read more read more
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - Andrea Barreiro has been named the Fort Myer Military Spouse of the Year for 2016.
Military Spouse magazine founded the award in 2008 to honor military spouses of all ranks and from all branches of the American armed services.
Barreiro and her husband, 1st Sgt. Jose Barreiro, have been married for 16 years. Jose Barreiro is assigned to C Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard). The couple has three girls: Viviana, 14, Alicia, 12, and Carolina, 11. The couple’s 3-year-old niece has lived with them for almost two years.
“We just got here last year,” she said. “I begged him to come up this way. I thought it would be really nice for the girls, that culture and the history that is here.”
Barreiro said she was surprised to be nominated for the award.
“I keep to myself,” she said. “I like to help people. I do a lot of volunteer work with my family and just try to be a good role model for my girls. I just thought I was flying under the radar.”
Barreiro is a full-time college student at Northern Virginia Community College, where she is pursuing three degrees and a part-time respite care provider for military families with children with special needs.
“If I’m not busy, something is wrong,” she said with a laugh. “I feel off.”
The award solicits nominations from the military community as well as the American public in the late fall. Three distinct phases of voting then follow, culminating in the announcement of the Military Spouse of the Year at an annual awards luncheon in Washington in early May.
Barreiro, who also grew up in a military family, said the Military Spouse of the Year program underscores the importance of the role of the military spouse.
“We are the community that is still there,” she said. “The Soldiers can go to training, can go to war and we are still there. We’re left to pick up all the pieces. If we build a community and a network while these gentlemen are gone, it will help out a lot of people. Together, we can accomplish more than we can by ourselves.”
Barreiro was also nominated as the Schofield Barracks Military Spouse of the Year in 2015 and attended last year’s awards ceremony soon after relocating to the National Capital Region.
“They happened to have a town hall meeting in Crystal City,” she said. “I got to go to that. They had the awards ceremony here, which was just mesmerizing.”
Barreiro said dignitaries, such as members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the sergeant major of the Army’s wife and others, attended the event.
“It’s an awesome networking system,” she said. “I’ve gotten to meet a lot of the other spouses who are involved in this, and we’ve done a lot of great things together.”
| Date Taken: | 02.11.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 02.11.2016 17:29 |
| Story ID: | 188665 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 63 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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