Holloman's Big Give Closes with Celebration at Casa Motors: 19 Teams, Thousands of Volunteer Hours, and a Community That Won Big

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — The 2026 Cosa Motos Holloman AFB Big Give Partnership came to a festive close Monday evening as the general manager of Casa Motors hosted a reception honoring the 19 squadron teams from Holloman Air Force Base that fanned out across Alamogordo, Tularosa and Ruidoso over the past month, contributing thousands of volunteer hours to small businesses, nonprofits and community projects across the region.

The Big Give is a month-long initiative in which Holloman squadrons partner with local communities across the Tularosa Basin and beyond to restore and improve public and commercial spaces — service beyond the mission that base officials say strengthens the bond between airmen and the communities they call home. This year's 19 projects ranged from work at the VFW Post 7686 and support for Alamogordo MainStreet to cemetery restoration and water cleanup efforts.

Monday's reception served double duty: the public cast ballots for the People's Choice honors while a voting panel weighed the field to crown the overall champions of an event in which, by every account in the room, the real winner was the community itself.

From Prime Time to the Tularosa Basin: How the Big Give Began

The Big Give tradition at Holloman traces its inspiration to an unlikely source: network television. In 2008, ABC aired “Oprah's Big Give,” a reality series created and produced by Oprah Winfrey through Harpo Productions and hosted by Nate Berkus, in which ten contestants crisscrossed the country competing not to get, but to give — taking on charitable challenges in a different city each week before a panel awarded the final $1 million prize. The show lasted only a single season, but Winfrey's parting challenge outlived it. She urged viewers not to wait for a television crew: rally your friends, your family and your neighbors, she said, and pull off your own Big Give in your own community.

Casa Motors participating with Team Holloman took her up on it. In the years that followed, base leadership and community partners organized the first Casa Motors Big Give, adapting the show's format into a friendly squadron-versus-squadron competition with a distinctly local purpose — pouring airmen's sweat equity into the small businesses, nonprofits and public spaces of Otero County. What began as a television-inspired experiment has grown into one of the most anticipated annual traditions in the base-community relationship: a full month in which squadrons scout projects, adopt organizations in need of a volunteer boost, and compete for bragging rights measured not in dollars raised but in fences painted, exhibits rebuilt, murals completed and hours given.

Nearly two decades on, the format remains true to its origins — teams, projects, judges and awards — but the stakes have inverted from the television version. On the show, one contestant walked away with a million dollars. At Holloman, the prize pool is the community itself, and this year it paid out across three towns: from a fresh mural and refurbished overhang on New York Avenue completed by the 54th Operations Support Squadron in Alamogordo's historic downtown, to cemetery restorations, water cleanups and the transformation of the zoo's bird exhibit.

2026 Big Give Honors

The Large Team Award recognized the 49th Equipment Maintenance Squadron for its major renovation work at the bird exhibit at the Alameda Park Zoo — one of the most ambitious undertakings in this year's slate of projects.

Alamogordo Mayor Sharon McDonald told the gathering she was "deeply moved by the level of effort Holloman personnel brought to the community this year, taking on 19 projects that touched everything from the VFW post and Alamogordo MainStreet to local cemeteries and regional water cleanup initiatives."

“The Big Give exemplifies Holloman’s commitment to community, family and mission.”

— Col. Michael S. Mullin, 49th Wing commander

Col. Michael S. Mullin, who assumed command of the 49th Wing on June 4, said he was proud of his airmen's effort and looks forward "to even deeper engagement with the broader Alamogordo and Otero County community." Mullin said the Casa Motors Big Give exemplifies Holloman's mission pillars of community, family and mission — and added that he and his family "love being back in Alamogordo for his second tour at the base."

Mullin knows at least one of this year's winning teams well: he served as director of operations and then commander of the 314th Fighter Squadron — this year's Small Team Award winner — during his first Holloman assignment from 2018 to 2021, before returning this summer from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, where he was deputy commander of the 354th Fighter Wing.

With thousands  airmen, family members and civilian employees, Holloman's population accounts for more than a third of the Alamogordo area — and events like the Casa Motors Big Give are a visible reminder that the relationship runs in both directions. 

Alamogordo and Holloman were jointly recognized with the Altus Trophy, the Air Force community-support honor, underscoring a partnership both the city and the base continue to invest in.

As the applause faded Monday night and the award winners found their new homes, the scoreboard was clear: 19 teams, three awards, thousands of hours — and one community better for all of it.

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