Fairfax police officer's ministry reaches out to veterans

Somewhere in between her duties as a Fairfax County police officer and raising a 15-month-old daughter, Michelle Humphries manages to touch the lives of hundreds of combat veterans every month through her nonprofit ministry.

A 16-year veteran of the county police department, Humphries, 39, started Arms Outstretched Ministry in 2006 after participating in several overseas mission trips.

"I realized that there was so much need right here at home that needed to be addressed in the same way," she said. The ministry is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation with nine board members.

Partnering with Gary Bailey, a fellow county police officer who is the founding pastor of Foundation Christian Fellowship Church in Stafford, Humphries' independent ministry heads up nine outreach programs that supply aid to active and wounded soldiers, as well as local foster children, the homeless, inmates and the elderly.

"Michelle has an incredible gift. She is passionate and is an incredible multitasker," said Bailey, 44, a 19-year veteran of the police department and an ordained minister who began his church in 2005.

Today, the church and its 50 or so members help to support Humphries in her ministries.

"Even though we worked for the same police department for more than a decade, we didn't know each other," Bailey said. "One day I was looking for a credible ministry with which to align my church when I ran across Michelle's Adopt-a-Soldier program through the Fairfax County police intranet."

Humphries said she got the idea for the program from her twin brother, Michael Nero, who is in the Air Force and serving in Iraq.

"I realized through him that soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan could really benefit from communicating with people at home, letting them know that someone cared," she said.

Humphries convinced a few fellow police officers who were interested in her efforts to reach out to soldiers, and the endeavor evolved into the Adopt-a-Soldier program.

"Once word got out in the department that we were doing this, I began getting dozens of e-mails from other co-workers asking if they could help," she said. "That's when I realized that it needed to become an organized thing. I met Gary right about that time."

The program has "adopted" more than 100 soldiers. Through the program, a police officer regularly sends a soldier care packages, cards and letters.