Service members had a great time tie-dyeing their own t-shirts (Katie Wells)
Recently, Stars and Stripes visited the USO Deployment Processing Center (DPC) at Rhine Ordnance Barracks (ROB). The facility is a transition space for soldiers passing through the military community and acts as a home away from home. Plenty of activities such as billiards, a music room, chess and gaming consoles are available for recreation. Volunteers also organize other fun activities for soldiers to enjoy. Earlier that day there was an impromptu ice cream social to help beat the heat.
Stripes brought tie-dye to the community for some additional creative fun. It was a great turnout! Participants enjoyed chatting while making unique and colorful designs for their shirts. A popular theme was black and red to wear to the new “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” movie. We even had a few serious tie-dye artists showing off their skills and knowledge of how the patterns would set.
The USO DPC has so much to offer like puzzles, video games and volunteer-coordinated events (Katie Wells)
A group of people focus on creating their tie-dye t-shirts (Katie Wells)
The great thing about tie-dye is every shirt comes out different. (Katie Wells)
One soldier reminisced about making tie-dye shirts often with her mom while she was growing up. Some soldiers made shirts to bring home to their spouses and children as a fun surprise. Another guy used only black dye, chuckling as he told our team “Now my shirt will be like a cow.” It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, especially during another German heat wave.
The USO Deployment Center at ROB has plenty of fun events and activities for soldiers passing through. (Katelin Fry)
Stars and Stripes had a blast tie-dyeing shirts with the USO Deployment Processing Center (Katelin Fry)
A participant adds dye to their shirt (Katie Wells )
The USO is always looking for volunteers to help welcome soldiers as well as maintain the facilities and provide a warm, inviting space. The first step to volunteering is to register and make a profile on the USO Deployment Processing Intake Portal. To learn more about volunteer opportunities with the USO, visit kaiserslautern.uso.org.
