In association with the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is holding its second annual CFC Talent Show event virtually this year!
Voting is now open and we have a Coast Guard entrant who made it into the TOP TEN (Mr. Jerry Popiel)! Voting will close Dec. 28. Here is your opportunity to vote for your favorite performance, and to support their favorite CFC cause!
Jerry Popiel is an incident management and preparedness advisor in District 9. His song, "A Distant June" is a tribute to veterans departing their loved ones for D-Day, June 6, 1944.
"A Distant June is a song I wrote this past summer. My initial inspiration for the lyrics was my own departing for the Coast Guard Academy, way back in a very distant June after I graduated high school," Popiel told us. "And as I worked on the lyric, I realized that we all have difficult departures, but some more than others. It made me think of the WWII veterans, in particular, who left home and family for the D-Day invasion of June 1944. Wow, I can hardly imagine what that must have felt like! In connecting with CFC, here in Cleveland, USCG D9 members volunteer to get to the airport in the wee hours of the morning to pay tribute to the flights carrying World War 2 veterans to Washington, DC. I hope this songs help all of us remember the efforts of our veterans in a very personal way.”
Will our own Jerry Popiel succeed last year's winner, Tabitha Massenberg from the Transportation Security Administration? Well, that’s where you come in! 
Out of 25 remarkable submissions, 10 talented DHS acts remain in contention to win the coveted DHS Talent Show Trophy on behalf of their component!
This is not your sixth-grader's talent show, and there are no papier mâché lobsters. Our colleagues turn in some wonderful performances from their home music studios, stairwells, local streets and what appears to be the Hollywood Squares set.
Please use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge to view our finalists’ videos and then vote for your favorite.
The 2020 DHS CFC Virtual Talent Show finalists are ...
- The CFO and His Tier Three Help Desk, DHS Management Directorate, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, supporting preventing animal cruelty
- DHS OCHCO, DHS Management Directorate, Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, supporting mental health
- Jerlin Cuesta, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, supporting low income students that cannot afford breakfast or lunch in the New York City area
- Marc “Mort” Geier, Federal Emergency Management Agency, supporting children and family services
- Roxane Jett, Transportation Security Administration, supporting the fight against homelessness
- Richard Melrose, Transportation Security Administration, supporting the fight against hunger
- Jerry Popiel, U.S. Coast Guard, supporting veterans
- Kimberly Shropshire, Transportation Security Administration, supporting the performing arts
- Billie Spencer, Federal Emergency Management Agency, supporting cancer awareness
- Tamika Starr, DHS Science & Technology Directorate, supporting multiple sclerosis
Now, before you visit the DHS CFC Talent Show to vote, pass this message on to 10 of your colleagues and ask them to do the same! We want to share this incredible DHS talent, and the opportunity to participate in this fun CFC event, with as many DHS employees as possible. Thank you.
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