Maribel Castillo, Marine spouse and homemaker, had to take a second look at her email when she received a message stating that her daughter, Ayleen, had won $1,500 by winning second place in the Exchange’s You Made the Grade sweepstakes.
A little perplexed, she reread the email to ensure that her eyes did not deceive her before telling Ayleen that she won the second-place prize—a $1,500 Exchange gift card.
“The first time I read the email, I thought it was spam,” Maribel said. “The second time I read the email, I thought, OMG.”
The official presentation took place Jan. 24 at the Kadena Exchange. Ayleen was joined by her father, 1st Sgt. Anthony Castillo, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force Support Battalion, Camp Hansen; mother, Maribel; and siblings, Brianna and Anthony Jr., at the presentation.
Also at the ceremony were the Exchange Pacific Region command team: Col. Jason L. Beck, commander: Sgt. Maj. Generose Green, senior enlisted leader; David Swenson, Okinawa Exchange general manager; Flordeliza “Flor” Payton, store manager; and Col. Laura Ramos, 18th Mission Support Group commander.
“Ayleen has always been a good student by devoting herself to her academics and always striving to perform her best in school,” Anthony said. “The You Made the Grade program encourages and motivates Ayleen to achieve scholastic excellence by helping her understand that hard work and dedication towards her academics will lead to rewarding results and benefits in her future career.”
Ayleen’s two favorite classes in school are physical education and mathematics but she excels in all her classes.
“Ayleen loves P.E. because she’s very passionate about athletics and enjoys being challenged during competitive activities,” Anthony said. “She also really loves math because she easily understands the concepts being taught and enjoys being able to help her peers.”
During the presentation, Beck gave Ayleen her first military “Coin of Excellence” for her hard work and dedication, which resulted in her achieving straight A’s. And when he asked her what she plans on doing with money, she said, “I want to buy an iPad mini.”
The YMTG program improved robustly for school year 2022-2023. In previous years, students who earned at least a B average received a $5 Exchange gift card: this year, students with a B average received a $10 Exchange gift card and students who earned straight A’s received a $20 Exchange gift card. Each gift card comes with a mail-in entry form to a worldwide YMTG sweepstakes.
In the first quarter, Kadena BX rewarded students with 1,147 gift cards totaling more than $15,300.
“The Exchange’s You Made the Grade program is in its 22nd year, and it is such a great program for students,” Beck said. “The Exchange will always continue to look for new and better ways to support our youngest heroes; they serve too.”
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