Quick action recovers piece of KAFB art
Master Sgt. Stephanie Therrien wasted no time packing up family members and headed to a thrift store on Central Avenue recently.
Her friend, Tech. Sgt. Shannon Dyer, had just messaged her, telling Therrien there was a piece of sand art that had Kirtland Air Force Base on it.
As the current Air Force Sergeants Association Chapter 1201 President, Therrien is working to reclaim parts of Kirtland’s history.
“I scoured the entire thrift store to look for this one piece of heritage.”
After looking for almost an hour, Therrien found the piece of art — a roadrunner overlooking the desert with the artist’s initials and date on the bottom right corner.
Therrien presented the AFSA Heritage piece to the Enlisted Heritage Room in the Mountain View Club at Kirtland Air Force Base last month. The piece was created in 1992.
The decision to hang the art in the Enlisted Heritage Room was especially important to Therrien as it represented the heritage of her chapter of the AFSA.
“We are the Roadrunner Chapter and we should never deviate from that,” she said.
By having the art hang in the room, Therrien said it feels good to honor the artists as well as previous chapter presidents.
“As an executive council, it felt so good for us to be like, ‘Hey, you guys weren’t forgotten.’ We didn’t forget about you and we didn’t just want to change the history that you had,” Therrien said.
Therrien’s drive to ensure airmen remember their heritage is inspired from the quote, “These are the giants on whose shoulders we stand,” by Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright.
“It’s not just about us. It’s about everyone who was before us and all of the work that they did,” Therrien said. “We’re paying it forward and we’re saying ‘thank you’ and honoring that.”