The Greater Fort Worth Area Civic Leaders Association, Inc. is an organization that serves the Fort Worth community taking upon civic duties for our community. Their mission is simple, support the Fort Worth and its institutions including keeping the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base (NAS JRB) open as an active base. A base that is critical to the economy of North Texas.
History of the Fort Worth Area Civic Leaders Association
Over 40 years ago our Congressman Jim Wright went to Dr. Gene Wood and asked him to form an organization to support our Military Base ( Carswell Air Force Base). Thus the birth of The Greater Fort Worth Civic Leaders Association which then put on a Military Ball, held at the Ridglea Country Club. Some of the other impressive contributions to our Military were: Paying to remodel the base Chapple, putting in electronica scoreboards for the baseball fields, making a contribution of $11,000 to keep the NCO club open (that club went on to become the Desert Storm). Buying flags for the base and paying for street signs for the base. Yearly trips to Washington DC to put on a Texas style BBQ for members of Congress and to the Pentagon to attend briefs on world situations and to show our committed support of the USA Military.
Dr. Wood stepped down as our leader due to his health, Stanley Cole took over. Stanley helped guide us through some very trying times. The Carswell Base was closed, having a serious impact on our economy. Stanley Cole and Lyle Oelfke worked with Congresswoman Kay Granger, Mayor Mike Moncrieff and other community leaders to have our Military Base reopened as The Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base. A great achievement.
Stanley Cole became ill and this organization went into limbo. Lyle Oelfke had been instrumental in raising money for the organization and knew that there was a sizable amount of money reserved in the treasury. Lyle Oelfke then set about to renew the Greater Fort worth Area Civic Leaders Association as an active organization that would again support our Military Base. He selected a board of directors that could provide leadership and had a knowledge of government and community affairs.
Lyle Oelfke felt that our Military Ball was for officers that could afford the price of the expensive tickets. He wanted to do something for everyone at the base as well for those that worked at the base and came up with doing a free BBQ for everyone on the base. That was near 25 years ago. Lyle Oelfke has been our group’s chairman all of those years. The Civic Leaders have put on 22 Base BBQ’s to help as a fund raiser the Greater Fort Wroth Community Charities a 501(c)3 organization was added as a partner to the Civic Leaders. Attending one of our BBQ’s were 5 visiting Admirals and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy along with the 3,000 base military attending. The visiting dignitaries all stated that they had never seen anything like it in the USA. This year we are going to partner with the Roll Call organization to do a luncheon for Veterans to be held at the base. The Covid 19 virus has caused some problems lately. Some other achievements done by our organization: donating money to elementary schools to be used to help children in need, taking busloads of wounded military from Fort Hood to the coast for a weekend of fishing and a fish fry, setting up taking traumatized military to Rocky Top therapy center, where they were given rides on a horse with a phycologist accompanying them. Donations for Holiday Gift Baskets for the NASJRB military. All of this and more.