Alison Ruble, USO of Illinois president and CEO, summed up the work of the 77-year-old nonprofit. "In every act of kindness, big or small, in the faces of every smiling military kid at a USO Discovery Kids program, in every warm welcome from a volunteer and comfortable chair at a USO Center, or every time the USO Pathfinder program connects a service member to help, the USO is 'packing the parachute' of those service members and their families, so that they always have a 'soft landing,'" she said.