CAMP FOSTER, OKINAWA, Japan — Camp Foster Commissary staff and Military AutoSource members teamed up to organize a free shopping spree event for personnel stationed in Okinawa, Dec. 13.

Four total individuals were selected to participate in the event. Military AutoSource selected a first and second place winner through a basketball competition and Camp Foster Commissary selected their own first and second place winners through a drawing. First place winners were granted 2 minutes to gather $300 worth of groceries from store shelves and second place winners were granted 1 minute and 30 seconds to get $200 worth of groceries.

U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Angel Calixto, an avionics technician with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 262, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, was selected to be the first-place winner due to his frequent usage of the Defense Commissary Agency’s COMMISSARY CLICK2GO program. Every purchase Calixto made on the CLICK2GO program entered him into the drawing for this event.

“There was a lot of fast paced running in a very short amount of time,” said Calixto. “It’s a lot of adrenaline. You’re just running around and trying to figure out what you want within a few minutes.”

For participants to cash out on all the groceries they collected, they had to reach the cashier before time was up. If they reached the checkout areas with a balance more than what they were allowed, they would have to pay the difference, but if they did not reach the limit, they could not redeem the rest of the cost in the future.

Hidden throughout the store shelves were golden tickets. If any of the contestants were able to grab a golden ticket, they were awarded a small gift bag with Commissary goods to add to everything they collected. Golden tickets were only allowed to be collected during the time and did not affect the total cost if found.

According to Tonya Landry, store director of Camp Foster Commissary, this was the only commissary on Okinawa that hosted an event like this.

“We decided to run this event because we wanted to give back to the community,” said Landry. “We’re a family here at Camp Foster.”

Once the event was over, a total of $1,000 was cashed in by participants to receive 122 items in goods from store shelves.

“I actually live on a Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, I got this opportunity from constant purchases through CLICK2GO,” said Calixto. “It was a great opportunity to experience this, and I hope that other people can experience it as well.”

COMMISSARY CLICK2GO is a free drop-off program targeted toward fulfilling grocery needs of service members. Shoppers using CLICK2GO on installations that have commissaries can select their groceries online. Shopper using CLICK2GO on installations without commissaries can have the nearest commissary deliver their groceries for pickup at their installation’s USO.

“We’re going to do more events,” said Landry. “Next year we will have more events planned with another shopping spree.”