Photo by John Romer It’s not going near the water, but this boat fully loaded with leaves is delivering its cargo anyway, being wheeled to a dumping spot by volunteers representing many organizations at Pax River during Christmas in April. See page 2 for more photos of Pax Pros helping others.

Volunteers included active duty military members, spouses, dependents and federal and contractor employees representing all activities on the naval air station as well as defense contractors, local government, businesses and private citizens groups.

All the major activities at NAS were represented that day -- NAVAIR and NAWCAD headquarters, U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, VX-1, VX-20, VX-23, VXS-1, VC-6, VQ-4 Det Maint, Air Ops GEM, NAS Weapons, PSD, Webster Field, the Naval Medical Clinic and Public Works Seabees.

According to Christmas in April Executive Director Mary Ann Chasen, this is the first time in its 17-year history that more volunteers showed up on workday than were scheduled. ‘‘It has been a good year,” she said.

Chasen added that more than 500 homes have been repaired in St. Mary’s County over that 17 years.