Married to: Wes Spaid
SOY Location: MCAS New River
Years as Milspouse: 20
Areas of Focus:
Nicole Spaid is a light. She illuminates every room she walks into with her beaming smile, and with her brings an infectious compassion and enthusiasm to everything she does. Nicole and her husband Wes have been married twenty years and during that time they have been through 8 deployments and 10 PCS moves. With a schedule that would make any of us tired, Nicole keeps moving forward, spreading positivity to those military spouses and families that know her. It is easy to see why Nicole was named the Key Volunteer Coordinator of the year, not just once, but twice, and why she was selected to serve as the Command Team Advisor for her husband’s unit.
Nicole may be best defined by her actions. Shares her friend, “She once stood out in the cold from 3am until 4pm on a Sunday just so she could dry the tears and give hugs to the spouses that sent their Marines off to sea.” This is just one of the many stories told by those that have known Nicole over the years about her remarkable selflessness.
In 2015, Nicole plans to share that message of support and empowerment with the spouse community. In the past twenty years, Nicole has discovered that military spouses want to become involved in one another’s lives, but have either not been asked or don’t know where to start. She believes that every spouse, military child and military family as a whole possesses unique gifts and talents that add to the strength of our military community at large. After going through eight deployments, Nicole has experienced first hand the importance of cohesiveness within the home unit in order to best support the mission. Much of this cohesiveness can be found in getting involved and providing opportunities to do so—from family unit activities to volunteering positions to fostering friendships within the community.
In Her Own Words:
“With the downsizing and budget cuts, the resources available to the military families are shrinking as well. It is important to find a balance in fitting into a budget, but still serving the families that carry the hardships of long and strenuous deployment cycles. I have found that families do not want handouts, they want a hand up!”
