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Mentor families give Airmen a place to call home

  • Published
  • By Megan Prather, Staff Writer

After two Airmen stationed at Tinker Air Force Base with the 552nd Air Control Wing were fatally wounded in a car accident on the night of Christmas Eve in 2011, Pam Kloiber asked then-Col. Gregory Guillot if there was anything she could do to help.

“I didn’t expect an answer, but he looked at me and said ‘you know, I have an idea I’ve always wanted to try, but I’m never at a base long enough,’” Kloiber said.

Guillot explained to Kloiber that he had been in the Air Force Academy and wanted to form a program similar to the Academy’s Cadet Sponsor Program. The Cadet Sponsor Program connects Airmen with sponsor families for the duration of their time in the Academy. It provides them with a home away from home while stationed away from their families in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Kloiber took the idea and ran with it and in 2013, Tinker AFB’s Home Away From Home program was established. 

Team Tinker Home Away From Home program links Airmen with community volunteers who serve as mentors and open their homes as a safe space for Airmen to go and relax, or if they just need someone to talk to that’s non-military affiliated.

“It’s not a new concept, we’ve just refined it so it meets the needs of the first-term young Airmen that live in the dorms and Tinker is their first duty station,” Kloiber said. “Being community partners we’re static in the community, we wanted to be the community wingmen and that’s what we are. We are a mentoring program and we’re there to keep them standing straight and tall and having a wonderful time here at Tinker.”

Home Away From Home started as an on-base private organization, but Air Force guidelines against this prompted Kloiber to take the organization outside the gates. She turned the organization into a 501(c)(3) non-profit following Judge Advocate General and base commander guidance.

“We work hand-in-hand with the base and include the base in all of our events, and base leadership shows up for everything we have,” Kloiber said.

Once a month, the Home Away From Home program holds various events, such as professional development courses, dinners with guest speakers and other outings for Airmen and their mentor families to attend.

Since its inception six years ago, 758 Airmen have benefitted from the Home Away From Home program and 199 Tinker Airmen are in the program currently. Kloiber currently has 20 Airmen that she opens her home to every week and 70 other metro area families take part in the program currently as well.

This concept has spread to more than 18 military bases around the country with the organization receiving national recognition. HAFH has won the Zachary Elizabeth Fisher Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award, and has been recognized as a Top Three Best Practice in the Air Force and received second place recognition from the Pentagon.

“We help build all kinds of things: self-esteem, stress relief, a place to go if you’re alone,” Kloiber said. “It’s a way that I can show my pride and love for the military, my tiny bit of help to de-stress the Airmen in the fight against terrorism, it’s just wonderful to be around young people.”