Chris Martin

Chris Martin of the Mt. Vernon area in New Kensington is not one to sit around and wait for things to happen. A life long native of the area, she has dedicated herself to community service in the belief it is better to give than receive. Starting in her early school days when she volunteered at a nursing home in Lower Burrell, Chris has continued to be involved in worthy community service groups. When you talk with Chris there is no mistake about her commitment and level of involvement in volunteer work. It wasn’t too long ago that Chris’s son Bradley was deployed to Iraq. It didn’t take Chris anytime to get involved in the Army’s Family Readiness Group (FRG) that supports the families while soldiers are oversees. The FRG is a support group providing an avenue of mutual support and assistance, and a network of communications among the family members, the chain of command, and community resources. The group meets each month, raises money to hold events for the families such as summer picnics, Christmas parties, birthday parties for the kids. Chris says when a soldier is deployed “it changes everything”. Families need information, financial help, access to unit assistance programs, dealing with military health coverage and a number of other issues.

As Chris was detailing how the Army FRG functioned you could see her passion. Her son started out in the 307th Battalion Military Police where she began her involvement in the FRG in Pittsburgh. Then he was switched to the 336th Military Police Company in New Kensington and she shifted groups. Chris is a go-getter and she ended up being the Chairperson and Treasurer of the Group. As with all organizations, there are a lot of details and work involved, but most of this group work has wrapped up since her son came home early this year.

For the last six years Chris has been very committed to the Alle-Kiski Hope Center. Heading up the annual Dine-Out Against Domestic Violence Banquet, her work begins in February of each year and goes on until the banquet is held in the fall. The Alle-Kiski Hope Center has helped tens of thousand adults and children over the past 26 years. The Banquet is a major fund raising campaign for the charity and Chris puts everything she has into making it a successful campaign. Working with a committee of approximately 16 people, she holds meetings every month and as they get closer to the annual event her time in bringing all the work and planning to fruition increases significantly. One would not believe that in the midst of all this activity and investment in community service, Chris finds time to try out skydiving and be active in the Kiski Women’s Winter Bowling League. She holds a full time position as an Administrator and Customer Service Representative at West Interior Services where she has worked the past 13 years. And, as if this isn’t enough, Chris has been a long time volunteer of Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program. This program focuses on prisoner’s children and helping them. Chris volunteers to help these children through their Christmas Gift Program. Angel Tree also is involved in camping and mentoring. She mostly concentrates on the Christmas program and helps collecting gifts and distributing them to the families. The “Angel Tree” name comes from Angels and during Christmas at malls they have a tree with angels on them for people to pick and purchase a gift for a particular child.

Chris is active at her church, Lower Burrell Baptist Church. Her employer provides a truck each month to assist them with their food bank program. Chris will also be assisting with the Vacation Bible School this year.

Chris has had a few hard times in her life, but her philosophy is “not to have a self-pity party” and give to others by reaching out and volunteering. She believes being committed means 100% dedication and it is obvious she is doing just that.

Watch the video interview of Christ Martin go to http://www.alle-kiskitoday.com/webcasts/1401

For more information on the Army’s Family Readiness Group, go here:

Army Community Service http://www.armycommunityservice.org/home.asp

Resources for person’s with soldiers in the Army:

ARMY ONE SOURCE http://www.armyonesource.com/

Visit Alle-Kiski Hope Center at: www.akhopecenter.org

Visit Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree Program at: http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Angel_Tree1