Marine to be honored for volunteering in Times Square

Marine Corps Public Affairs Office New York
Courtesy Story
NEW YORK - A local Marine will be honored for his community service in a Times Square-ceremony Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 3 p.m. before he and his family departs for California just before Christmas in preparation for an Afghanistan deployment.

Staff Sgt. Daniel Valdes, a father of three children, will receive the Meritorious Volunteer Service Medal for his community outreach work as a member of 6th Communications Battalion in Brooklyn since 2008. Later this month he and his family will move to Camp Pendleton, Calif., where he will join the 1st Assault Amphibian Battalion and deploy to Afghanistan in early 2012.

The Meritorious Volunteer Service Medal recognizes service members who perform outstanding volunteer community service of a sustained, direct and consequential nature, above and beyond their duties as a Marine.

As a family man with a wife and three children, Valdes has spent his time supporting organizations that seek to help families. He has been the driving force behind the battalion's key community outreach events over the past years. Most notably, Valdes initiated a relationship between the battalion and the Ronald McDonald House, serving families of children who are hospitalized, by organizing three separate events featuring a spaghetti meal for the families, gift baskets, toy giveaways, and entertainment.
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