CAMP ZAMA, Japan - The U.S. Army Garrison Japan Religious Services Office hosted an appreciation dinner Monday at the Camp Zama Community Club to recognize the contributions of hundreds of volunteers in the community.

The event brought together many of the volunteers who collectively gave more than 10,000 hours of their time at events at the Camp Zama Chapel and other RSO initiatives in the past year.

During the dinner, USAG Japan Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Damon Saxton expressed his gratitude to the almost 200 community volunteers for their commitment and hard work in supporting the RSO and the chapel.

"The volunteers are absolutely essential to what we do," Saxton said, "[and] we wanted to make sure that they knew that we appreciated what they did for us."

Volunteers play a crucial role in supporting his organization, Saxton said, including running audiovisual systems, providing musical accompaniment at church services, greeting attendees at the door, and teaching classes at the annual Vacation Bible School program during the summer.

The need to develop and build a sense of community on the installation is crucial, Saxton said, because there are not many religious service options outside the base. The Religious Services Office on Camp Zama, a small overseas location, does not have access to the same resources or support as offices in the United States, so volunteers here play a very important role, he added.

"It's absolutely essential that we have volunteers," Saxton said. "We couldn't function without them."

Another important volunteer-led program is Celebrate Recovery, a recovery program that helps those who are struggling with various challenges to overcome them. One of the volunteers recognized at the dinner was John Villanueva, who, along with his wife, Stacey, runs Celebrate Recovery. He and his family have a personal connection to the program, and they set it to themselves to start one in Japan when they got stationed here.

The program is the first of its kind on any military installation in the world, Villanueva said. He expressed his gratitude for the support he gets from the garrison chapel team and the community.

"We don't volunteer for the recognition," Villanueva said. "But it's wonderful to see how many people we have here that are plugging into the community [and] very intentionally giving their time, their effort, to be able to impact our community here. It's really uplifting."

Col. Marcus Hunter, commander of USAG Japan, gave remarks at the event and likewise expressed his gratitude to the volunteers and the entire garrison chapel team, emphasizing the importance of their contributions to help bring the community together.

"I've learned that what makes our community so great is the way we function," Hunter said. "The way we function relates back to our deep desire to serve others."

With a continued emphasis and enthusiasm for volunteering, Camp Zama will continue to grow stronger together as a community, he said.

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