- Hi, I'm Kevin Larson, I'm your host
for this week's edition of The Marne Report podcast.
I'm joined by our lovely Molly Cook
from our Fort Stewart Hunter Army Airfield
Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation,
it's a lot easier if I say FMWR.
Hi Molly, how are you?
- I'm great, Kevin, how are you?
- I'm doing fantastic, been on leave,
it's the first day back.
- Same here.
(laughing)
- But it's the holidays and we're in full swing.
What can you tell us about the holidays?
- Well, FMWR has a ton of super fun holiday events
that are coming up, this week they start actually.
- This week?
- Yep, this week.
Wednesday we have the holiday tree lighting
here on Fort Stewart outside of Club Stewart
starting at 5:00 p.m.
- [Kevin] Fantastic.
- Um, and then that's quickly followed by
the holiday tree lighting on Hunter Army Airfield
on Friday the 6th also at 5:00 p.m.
outside of Hunter Club.
- So what could you tell me about these videos
that I've been seeing (mumbles)
(laughing)
Social media presence of Buddy and of course
Molly the Elf.
Will they be there?
- They will be there.
- Awesome.
- Yes, so every single year, as of late,
we've started to try to incorporate a story
into the tree lighting as a way to kind of get people
excited about the holiday season.
Last year, some people might remember
we did have the Grinch come and try to steal Christmas.
- [Kevin] That was fantastic.
- [Molly] It was fantastic, but it didn't work.
We prevailed.
- [Kevin] That's true.
- Yep, so um, this year we have Buddy and Molly
that have traveled through the Candy Cane Forest
to get here to Fort Stewart to help raise the holiday spirit
because it's a little too low, to bring Santa Claus
to the tree lightings to help us light the Christmas tree.
So over the past couple of weeks,
my, our marketing director, Tyler Gerber, and I
have bounced around Fort Stewart and Hunter
in our elf costumes and cause a lot of trouble
and have a lot of fun in many different facilities on post.
- That sounds like a lot of fun.
- Yeah.
- Where is our spirit meter right now?
What's our reading?
- So actually right now, the spirit meter is high.
Yep, yep.
The Claus-o-Meter is reading in green right now,
which is very good considering that this is the week
of the tree lighting, so we just have to make sure
to keep that up to make sure that Santa Claus will come.
But we've got a lot of fun in store
for both of those tree lightings.
I'm hedging my bets that Santa Claus is gonna be there.
(laughing)
- Chances are pretty--
- Yeah, they're pretty high.
- Pretty high.
(laughing)
So what other great events do we have
come up for the holiday season?
- Um, well, so we also have, for instance,
in Hayes Library starting tomorrow,
they've got a lot of free events
that folks can participate in,
whether that is decorating your own holiday cards,
they've got all kinds of arts and craft supplies for that,
or you can even go there and make a Gingerbread House.
So those are some free things.
We also have Trees for Troops that are happening
on both Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield,
that's for ranks E6 and below.
If they go to either of the leisure travel facilities
on Stewart or Hunter, they can pick up a voucher
and then go and get a free Christmas tree.
So like Hunter Army Airfield, that actually takes place
on the 6th immediately following
the Christmas tree lighting there,
and on here on Fort Stewart,
it will be on the 7th of December
over in the Newman Fitness Center parking lot.
- That's always a good event.
- Yeah, of course.
Then we also have breakfast with Santa
on the 8th of December over at Club Stewart.
Everybody loves that Santa Claus is always there.
Rumor has it that some of Santa's friends
will also be in attendance to spread the holiday cheer
a little bit farther.
- Excellent.
- And then we have our big Winter Fest and Holiday Hayride
happening out at Corkan, or not Corkan, I'm so sorry,
at Holbrook Recreation Area December 13th and 14th.
- So the recreation, the Holbrook Pond event,
is there, there are multiple options with that event, right?
You can drive through and stay, or explain that.
- Yes, okay, so for the 13th and 14th,
we'll actually have the Winterfest events happening
where folks can come and they can take a hayride
through the woods, they can take a boat ride
across Holbrook Pond, roast marshmallows, you know,
and just enjoy the festivities and the holiday events
that we've got going on for those two days.
After that through the 25th of December,
we'll have the Holiday Festival of Lights
which is just where you can drive through,
they pull all of the decorations out from the woods
and make it to where you can just drive around the pond
to see all of those decorations out there.
So if you cannot make it on the 13th and 14th,
there is still an opportunity to see those festive lights.
- So there's an opportunity if you'd like to go drive
and look at lights.
- Yep.
- Holbrook Pond sounds like a good choice.
- Absolutely.
- So is there any other events you want to share with us?
- You know what, really right now we're so focused on
all of our holiday events, we just really hope
that people come out and celebrate the season with us.
There's no better time than to spend with your friends
and family than, you know, during this season.
So we are really hoping to bring that magic to life
for everyone on Stewart and Hunter.
- Sounds good, and if people want to find out
more about the events, where should they go?
Let's look at the web address.
- Yep, so everyone can figure out all of the holiday events
and more that we've got happening on our website.
It is stewarthunter.armymwr.com.
- [Kevin] Excellent.
Well, thanks Molly for joining us and giving us a rundown
on holiday events that are happening this year.
I'm Kevin Larson with the Fort Stewart Public Affairs Office
and this has been your Marne Report.