Our Stacks program is continuing to gain some momentum as their local communities start opening back up. Whether it's helping with food, having community game nights, or doing a local clean-up, our Stacks are making positive impacts within their communities. Interested in joining or starting your own Stack? Just go to this page and sign up using the form at the bottom! If you have a group of friends who want to join in on Stack Up's mission and do some good work, get them to sign up too.
Holloman AFB
Our monthly support of the Hope Community Center's food bank has changed. We've switched over to deliveries. This hits a different demographic than the in-person food banks, as we see the folks that do not leave their homes.
Our Stack should now have a set route! We are directly serving veterans, the elderly, disabled, addicts, etc. directly every month. This is us reaching out to a portion of our community that is often missed/overlooked, as they do not leave their homes.
Our Stack is still pushing for 2 events a month, one community involvement and one gaming event. We are proud to assist this food bank and may assist with food reclamation in the coming months. As this continues, we hope to pull a lot of support from the base, grow as a community, and make a larger impact in our immediate area.
Chattanooga
During Covid, the Chattanooga stack was able to get 4 games as a donation from a local store in the neighboring city of Dalton, GA. Battleground games donated approximately 200 dollars worth of board games.
The games were donated to the newly built Chattanooga Veterans Affairs Clinic and dropped off with Volunteer Services Director Joshua Green.
May 25: Chattanooga Stack played MTG to celebrate the release of a new set and to enjoy each other's company. Masks and Covid precautions were taken. Members were informed that if they had already been treated with the vaccine, they would no longer be required to wear masks for photos.
May 27: With Covid Vaccinations being supplied by the federal government via many different locations, as well as CDC mandates being updated around vaccinated individuals, the Chattanooga Stack agreed to make all future games of Magic the Gathering mask free events as long as all attendees are fully vaccinated. Vaccination cards were shown voluntarily to the Stack leader, who confirmed it had been at least 14 days since the 2nd injection of the Pfizer or Moderna Vaccines, or only injection of the J&J Vaccine.
During the game, we talked about our reactions to the vaccines, all mild, but with many a tale of how annoying the soreness in the arm was the day after where we got the injection. The worst any of us had was one person who had a low-grade fever after their second injection for a day. No serious reactions occurred with any of our members, and we all laughed at jokes made at our mutual expense. We also took some time talking about mental health awareness month and military appreciation month. We made an equal amount of dark jokes about how those two things correlate while sharing plans for Memorial Day.
All in all, we all had fun, and everyone felt as the last year is finally slowly lifting and some of the stress that came with it had too. We all shared some of the losses we have endured over the past year, including some members' loved ones, and were happy to both be there for each other and have people there for us when we needed them.
Dayton
The Dayton Stack gathered out at D20 bar in Kettering once again for a chill game night!
D20 is one of our favorite haunts for the Stack as it provides a welcoming atmosphere appropriate for the whole family with good beer and walls full of games! They are always accommodating, and we look forward to holding more in-depth events with them soon.
The mead doth did floweth, and merry times were had by all! xD