By Sarah Kemp, Senior Center Manager, USO Stuttgart
It has felt like a long two and a half months, but the wait is over and USO Stuttgart reopened its doors to the community at the start of June.
USO Stuttgart was the first USO center in Germany to reopen. Following careful guidance from USO leadership and USAG Stuttgart some restrictions are in place until further notice and can be found below.
While we won’t be able to serve our famous USO popcorn for the time being, there are plenty of prepackaged snacks, Coca-Cola products, water, and of course coffee available. Like always there will be smiling USO faces to greet you at the door and free WiFi, printing, faxing, scanning, and copying.
The USO will not be conducting any in-person programs but is open as a resource for anyone who needs it especially those in-and-out processing.
If you don’t need to visit the center, don’t fret, the USO is still offering virtual ways to connect on their Facebook, Instagram, and through Zoom! These innovative programs like Cooped Up Cooking, Fit It In Fitness, and Reading Redhead boosted our community’s morale more than 5,300 times from March through May!
The USO June schedule of events includes virtual classes like Language Learners and Photography as well as Story and Craft Time and Virtual Coffee Connections. Start your week off right with USO Stuttgart Live on Monday mornings at 0830 to learn what all is going on at USO Stuttgart that week. There will still be an original video a week featuring one of the USO staff on Wednesdays, and the creative volunteer challenges on Fridays. Visit the center’s Facebook page, Instagram account, or website for details.
Current USO Stuttgart services under COVID-19 guidelines:
- All visitors must wear masks.
- At this time, all visitors must be 18 years and older.
- No more than 8 visitors allowed in the center at once.
- Visitors are limited to 20 minutes in the center if others are waiting.
- 6 CAC enabled laptops each 6.5 feet apart are available along with electronic sanitizing wipes.
- Coffee, Coca-Cola products, Water, pre-packaged snacks are available.
- Print, fax, scan, and copy capabilities are available. You can email stuttgartuso@uso.org to have the copies ready when you arrive.
- Free phones to call the states, Germany and DSN are available and sanitized before each user.
- Everyone must sign in. We’ll sanitize stylus pens for the iPads before each user. We encourage guests to use the USO mobile app on their own phone to check-in.