For the Sailors of Navy Recruiting District New York’s Fordham Road Recruiting Station, it’s all about the numbers.
These numbers, however, have nothing to do with how many young men and women enlist in the Navy. For the recruiters of Navy Recruiting Station (NRS) Fordham Road, it’s about how many people in the local community they can help.
“This is what I believe recruiting duty is all about,” said Fordham Road’s Recruiter in Charge, Quartermaster First Class Petty Officer Adam Congello. “It’s not just about finding people to join the Navy, it’s about giving back to the community and showing people what a great organization we are.”
During the months of October and November, Congello and three of the recruiters assigned to his station spent time visiting the residents of the Providence Rest Nursing Home.
“The people at the nursing home love seeing people in uniform,” said Congello. “It brings them back to their heyday.”
For Congello, these visits are about more than just making the residents of the nursing home and the local community happy. They’re also about promoting positive Navy awareness in an area not generally exposed to the fleet.
The recruiters of NRS Fordham Road have also worked closely with the students of the Grand Concourse Academy, a Bronx elementary school, over the last two months. Congello, his recruiters, the Grand Concourse Academy, and the Providence Rest Nursing home recently joined forces to conduct a Bronx-wide food drive.
“For this food drive,” said Congello, “I wanted to use the entire borough of the Bronx, as well as different generations. I chose the nursing home to represent what made America great, my recruiters to represent what continues to make our country great, and the elementary school students to represent our nation’s future.”
The food gathered from the food drive was donated to the Food Bank of New York City to help feed the city’s homeless.
Congello believes that for the students of the Grand Concourse Academy, getting involved in community service such as the food drive is important.
“Being an inner-city school, this project is a step in the right direction for these children to stay out of trouble and do something for their community,” he said.
“We will be conducting classroom visits and a read-aloud program at the Grand Concourse Academy and P.S. 49’s second grade classes throughout the school year,” said Congello.
As the Navy reinvents itself as a global force for good, the recruiters of Navy Recruiting Station Fordham Road are demonstrating how easy it is to also be a “local force for good.”
