Fort Hood and Killeen, Texas --An army of 12,000 volunteers joined forces to bring aid and comfort to needy neighbors. We don't have a lot of money," says an organizer, "but people, we've got." Make A Difference Day at the nation's largest military base and it's community has grown in six years from 20 projects to more than 135, from a few hundred volunteers to 12,000.

This is Americana at its finest; cheerleaders, brownie scouts, football players, moms, priests and military folks all mixed in together. It's a point picture. It showed the sheer scope of participation in Make A Difference Day.

We used a 12-foot ladder to shoot from. It was significant challenge to arrange everybody, especially when you're talking about trying to put civilians into formation. We ended up having the military folks line up and then we replaced one civilian at a time.

Photo Essay by Charles "Stretch" Ledford
StretchPhotography.com