Straight Talk: Thanks to our volunteers Published April 22, 2010 By Col. Charles F. Thompson 66th Air Base Wing commander HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. -- Thanks to our volunteers! Several events scheduled in the coming weeks are salutes to our volunteers in the area. Time is one of our most precious commodities and personal time with all of the demands of today seems especially rare. I wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who takes their own time to make Hanscom and our surrounding community a better place to live. We could not be successful without volunteers who coach our children in sports, participate in science fairs or pick up trash in the Shawsheen River. Even the smallest things our volunteers do around the community have a huge impact, such as assisting families by mowing a lawn, helping a neighbor with a flooded basement or assembling care packages for our deployed warriors. Volunteerism in all of its forms makes our community more than a collection of houses and into a real neighborhood we can be proud of. I wish I could recognize all of these individuals at an award function for their contributions; I just wanted to take some time to say from thanks from Team Hanscom for all you do.