Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads Public Affairs Officer
NORFOLK, Va. - A 2003 Maury High School graduate and Virginia Beach, Virginia, native received the Civilian of the Quarter Award serving at Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) for Naval Support Activity (NSA) Hampton Roads - Northwest Annex (NWA) located in Norfolk, Virginia.
Chelsea Sweet has served for 10 years as the Community Recreation Director for NSA Hampton Roads MWR, in charge of providing recreational programs and services in the areas of outdoor recreation, community events, discount tickets to attractions and vacation bookings and leisure skills development.In addition, she is responsible for recreation equipment rentals, parks and picnic areas and information and referral to a variety of recreational offerings in the local area.
"Receiving Civilian of the Quarter makes me feel appreciated for the work that I am doing for our military community at NWA," said Sweet. "It's rewarding to know that all of events we host throughout the year mean as much as they do to our service members at our installation."
NSA Hampton Roads MWR provides recreational programs and services in the areas of outdoor recreation and equipment rentals, community events, discount tickets to attractions and vacation bookings, leisure skills development, parks and picnic areas and information and referral to a variety of recreational offerings in the local area.
"Fleet and Family Readiness, specifically MWR, provides support to services to active duty military, their dependents, retirements, reservists, and Department of Defense civilians," said Kelly Harkins, director of NSA Hampton Roads MWR. "It is our mission to contribute to the retention, readiness and mental, physical well-being of military personnel and to the welfare of families providing a varied program of recreational, social and community activities."
NSA Hampton Roads MWR is responsible for hosting a numbers of events throughout the year including the 3rd annual Haunted Harvest, which had more than 400 patrons in attendance, the 3rd annual Breakfast with Santa that had more than 100 patrons in attendance, and the inaugural MWR Christmas Tree Lightning event hosted at the installation Chapel.
"Chelsea has been a standout member of the NSA Hampton Roads MWR Team for several years." said Harkins. "She does an exceptional job for the military families at Northwest Annex, creating and executing creative innovative family programming. She goes above and beyond to make families who live and work at NWA to feel welcome and supported."
Sweet said working with the Navy has helped her grow both professionally and personally within her department and provided a first-hand experience as to why MWR is so important to service members and their families.
"Over my 10 years with MWR, I have had the opportunity to work in almost every department we have to offer, child care, fitness and sports, liberty, food and beverage, marketing and community recreation," said Sweet. "We are here to offer services to keep their morale up when times may seem bad. We offer programs to keep the Navy ready in the fitness department, amazing child care to ensure their children are taken care of while they are protecting our freedom, cheap and quick meals allowing them to get back to their demanding jobs in a timely manner, discounted tickets, travel, events programs, equipment and much more to make sure when they have down they are able to enjoy themselves with their budget."
She is the daughter of David and Cyndi Sweet who both reside in Norfolk, Virginia.
Her father retired as a petty officer 1st class builder with the Navy Seabees.