The GiveBack Project: Naval Station Rota Helps Local Communities

May 26, 2020

With the goal of raising spirits and giving hope, Navy personnel at Naval Station Rota, Spain, with help from Boy Scout Troop 73, organized a GiveBack Project to help their Spanish hosts in local communities hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christon Duhon and Navy Seaman Manuel Soto, both assigned to U.S. Naval Hospital Rota, along with Navy Chaplain (Cmdr.) Samuel Ravelo, conceptualized the project and brought it to life with the help of the Boy Scouts.

The GiveBack project name represents the welcoming, helpful, and supportive community of Rota and El Puerto de Santa Maria, and is a way for the base community to give back in this difficult time, organizers said. This project was developed not just to help a few families, but with the goal of aiding as many as possible within the Rota and El Puerto de Santa Maria communities.

''My family and I have lived in and loved this community for over a decade,'' said Dr. Marcy Baudistel Bond, a teacher at Rota David Glasgow Farragut schools. ''We feel blessed to be a part of such a beautiful and welcoming community. Giving back is something we wholeheartedly believe in and preach to our four children, so of course we were so happy to have the opportunity to give back to the community we call home.''

The GiveBack project offers two ways for the community to donate. First, the organizers have set up donation boxes for food or nonperishable items at the base chapel, the housing office and the Boy Scouts Hut in the base housing area. To date, the community has filled six tri-wall boxes with donations.

Additionally, the project established an online donation fund with 100 percent of the money donated being used to purchase food items from off-base grocery stores. So far, the community has given $940, which was used to purchase groceries from a local supermarket, which in turn matched a portion of the purchase with its own donation to the cause.

The GiveBack organizers are coordinating with the Naval Station Rota Spanish Liaison Office, which is in contact with city hall officials from El Puerto and Rota to organize the pickup or delivery of the donations from the installation to be distributed throughout the cities.

Giving food, water, or even clothing doesn't just supply a family with basic necessities, it gives them respite while showing that strangers do care, the GiveBack Project organizers said, adding that they will continue to emphasize and strengthen the bond between the naval station and the local communities.

(Courtesy of Naval Station Rota, Spain.)