Sailors assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze (DDG 94) participated in three community relation service projects during a port visit, March 13-14.     Over the course of two days, the team of volunteers worked with Ti Rayons Solei, APSA Diabetes Clinic, and The Center for Women and Children in Distress.

On March 13, Nitze Sailors spent the day in Black River at Ti Rayons Solei, an afterschool children’s center for disadvantaged young children. While at the center, the volunteers assembled and installed playground equipment, built a fence, replaced rotting fence posts, built two walkways, and repaired and installed two swing sets.

“Wow, what a great day! A lot of hard work and sweat, but to see the delight and surprise in the children when we were finished made for an awesome day,” said Machinist Mate 1st Class Jonathon Adams, assigned to Nitze. “This was the best service project that I have ever been a part of.”

Sailors also had lunch with local volunteers of Ti Rayons Solei, played soccer and volleyball, and listened to the children sing during a special presentation as they sang songs.

Other Nitze Sailors, led by Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Gary Cherry, spent time at Association pour la Promotion de la Santé (APSA) Diabetes Clinic in the city of Trianon. The team of Nitze volunteers painted the entire exterior of the center. Cherry personally taught the clinic’s personal trainer physical therapy exercises for the clinic’s elderly patients.

“The experience at the clinic was remarkable and I will never forget the smiles on the patients’ faces after I taught them how to do a push up,” said Cherry. He further explained how the experience at the clinic helped reminded him why he went into medicine in the first place.

On March 14, Nitze Sailors volunteered at the Shelter for Women and Children in Distress.

Sailors repaired and refurbished more than a dozen classrooms, desks and chairs, repaired broken hinges and cleaned their storeroom.

The afternoon was spent playing games and interacting with the children. Afterwards, the children gave a presentation, and even convinced some of the Sailors to dance their traditional Mauritian dance.

“The Children thought that we were blessing them. Little did they know, they were truly blessing us,” said Culinary Specialist Seaman Becca Stinnett. “This experience opened my eyes and heart to how great it is to travel the world and bless others along the way.”

Nitze is on a scheduled deployment supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations.

U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts a full range of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation missions in concert with coalition, joint, interagency, and other parties in order to advance security and stability in Europe and Africa.