Operation Homefront Published Sept. 3, 2020 By Senior Airman Noah J. Tancer 910th Airlift Wing Public Affairs YOUNGSTOWN AIR RESERVE STATION, Ohio -- Let’s see, pens, pencils, paper… check. Markers, crayons and glue... check. Pencil sharpener, scissors and a calculator... check, check and check, without even stepping into a store. This August, Airmen and Family Readiness held their annual school supply giveaway, Operation Homefront, over the 910th Airlift Wing’s alpha and bravo unit training assemblies. “We stop at 14 local Dollar Trees to pick up donated supplies,” said Master Sgt. Renee Mihoci, the NCOIC of A&FR. “We then hand them over to members of the Air Force Reserve.” But this year came with a little twist due to COVID-19. The supplies were all pre-packaged to avoid unnecessary contact between the Reserve Citizen Airmen. “Instead of everyone coming down here, digging through boxes like we normally would,” said Mihoci. “We have arranged everything in bags so you can come down and just grab a bag. Then no one has to have their hands over everything.” The bags held about 30 dollars of products each, with slight differences in content meant for each grade. “It’s a great opportunity to help our Airmen with school supplies,” said Mihoci. “They get their notebooks, folders, pens, pencils, markers and crayons. It’s pretty full. The second we set them out there we had a huge rush of people.” Approximately 600 bags of school supplies were donated to the members of Youngstown Air Reserve Station. “I wanna say thank you for the generous donations...and the people who choose to do that, cause it definitely makes a difference to our Citizen Airmen and their families,” said Staff Sgt. Nicholas Bacisin, an A&FR technician. “Especially during these times, COVID has presented so many unique challenges where we couldn’t imagine living life the way we do now.” Thanks to the community, YARS’s families are better prepared to face the 2021 school year.