MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii -- The afternoon was filled with face paintings, food and fun as roughly 100 children attended Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay’s 5th Annual Children’s Marine Corps Birthday celebration, Nov. 5 outside of the Lifestyle Insight Networking Knowledge and Skills house.
The celebration’s guest of honor, Brig. Gen. Steven A. Hummer, commanding general, MCB Hawaii, spoke with the children and was on hand for the cake-cutting ceremony, according to Eileen McCallum, Key Volunteer trainer and LINKS volunteer.
“The ceremony was excellent, and General Hummer did a great job explaining some of the Marine Corps knowledge to the children,” said the Syracuse, N.Y. native. “A slice of cake was even given to the oldest and youngest child who attended the event.”
The celebration took approximately one month to organize and included balloon animals by Adventure Balloons; a martial arts demonstration by Marines from Regimental Schools; a silent drill team demonstration by Marine Air Logistics Squadron 24; photo opportunities with Danno, the base mascot; face paintings; a bouncy house; food; party gift bags; a flag ceremony; and a cake-cutting ceremony.
“Every unit on base volunteered time and Marines to the event,” said McCallum. “Everyone was so willing to help out it made planning and working the event really easy.”
McCallum said that she hopes to make each birthday celebration bigger every year.
“Our only problem this year was that the area we held the celebration was not big enough to accommodate all of the people who attended,” she said. “Next year we hope to hold it somewhere else so we can comfortably take on many more families.”
Among the attendees was military spouse Vanessa St. Onge who brought her three children to the event for the first time.
“I heard about the event through the Key Volunteers and thought I would bring my kids out,” said the Fayetteville, Ga. native. “My children liked seeing the Humvee and getting their faces painted the best,” said Onge. “It was a lot of fun, and I would definitely bring them to an event like this again.”
At the close of the celebration, the children stood and sang happy birthday to the Marine Corps after which they were given a cupcake, before calling it a day and going home.
“The day was, all in all, a great success,” said McCallum. “Hopefully, the event will only grow bigger every year.”