Military Kids Blog

Families United invites families of servicemembers deployed to Afghanistan, or those who will deploy within the next four months, to attend Camp Desert Kids on Sunday, October 3, 2010. We hope that you and your children will join us on this fun and educational journey. By teaching children about Afghanistan, Camp Desert Kids enables them to connect the dots of deployment through an exciting event tailored for the little mind. 

What: Camp Desert Kids

When: Sunday, October 3, 2010 (2 p.m. – 5 p.m.)

Where:  Abby Reinke Community Center
Wire Mountain Road, Bldg #201019
Camp Pendleton, CA 92055

To register: www.familiesunitedusa.org/campdesertkids

The Camp Desert Kids program works to help military children better understand the deployments that shape their lives through a fun and educational event. In addition to allowing children to share similar experiences as their deployed parent, it serves to help American children learn that Iraqi and Afghani children do the same things they do — just differently, and works to cultivate an appreciation of Middle Eastern heritage. Families United and our Kids Outreach Program serve as a resource for military parents and their children.

This video is from our Camp Desert Kids in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on June 17, 2010. For more information about Camp Desert Kids and Families United please visit www.FamiliesUnitedUSA.org

Throughout a good portion of my childhood – but most especially my teenage years – I complained to my parents about how much I hated moving. I had trouble making new friends, moving messed with my grades and I just thought it wasn’t fair. Most of the kids I knew in middle school and high school didn’t move as much as I did – if ever. I would tell them how I was going to go to college and then find somewhere to live and never move. I would never do something so awful as ruin my kids’ lives.

Obviously I was a somewhat dramatic youth.

Then I moved away for college. And somewhere around the end of my sophomore year I started thinking about how weird staying was. But I was excited to come back for my junior year. Though I kept thinking how weird it felt – like my brain was confused by returning somewhere for a third school year. Midway through junior year I started thinking about all the places I still wanted to see. It was an itch between my shoulders.

Much to my parents shock, I started talking about moving a year or two after I graduated college. When they asked where I would go I said, Memphis. Why Memphis? Well, why not?

It’s funny – all those years of moving and now it feels weird to stop. I guess I’ll have to see if the need to see new places carries with me throughout adulthood.

This weekend families from across the United States gathered in our Nation’s capital. They came from all walks of life – old and young, rich and not so rich, Northerners and Southerners and more. For the most part, they didn’t have much in common but the one thing they shared will bond them together forever. Each and every one of these families had lost a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan. This July 23^rd and 24^th was the 2010 Weekend of Remembrance.

For the most part, at Families United I work with the kids programs. I love kids and being a military child myself I relate well to the issues they face. I can’t claim to understand the devastation of losing a loved one in combat – though I have lost my share of loved ones throughout my life. Nevertheless, I had the honor of planning and hosting this year’s Weekend of Remembrance Kids’ Reception on the evening of July 23^rd. It was Olympic themed and I, personally, had a blast.

There was an arts and craft section where you could make your own Olympic torch, there was Wii Sports, bouncy houses turned into my very own version of Olympic events, and if you wanted you could try your hand at my javelin throw with a pool noodle. I was also blessed to have a variety of local athletes – from local colleges and adult leagues – attend to volunteer at the event. Each and every one of them was amazing and seemed to have as good a time as me.

Most importantly, the kids seemed to have a fabulous time at the event too. They were able to keep track of all the events they participated in with their scorecard. For participating in the Olympics they received a Families United medal and each child was entered into two raffles. Depending on age and where they were from kids were eligible to win Build a Bear, Animal Planet, Sesame Street or professional sports team items. So many people were willing to do something great for this group of kids who have already given so much to our country. It was inspiring and I was proud to be involved.

I’m hoping to have pictures soon for you to view. If you went to the Kids’ Reception be sure to send me a posting at KidsBlog@FamiliesUnitedMission.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time,

Katie

Hot dogs, hamburgers, sultry temperatures and fireworks. All of these things sum up the 4th of July. Especially in my home of Fort Bragg. But the 4th of July means so much more.

The 4th of July is when a group of men gathered in Philadelphia, laid quil to parchment, and agreed they would rather die for this fledgling country than continue to be oppressed.

The 4th of July is a new beginning. A day when we remember all the reasons this country has stood up, time and again, to fight back against oppression. Because the roots of this country are fighting for the right to live as we chose. Whether that included worshipping God, Allah or no god at all. Whether that included bearing arms or protesting those who bore them.

On July 2nd, the 82nd Airborne Division Band building burnt to the grown in less than half an hour. In it was all their music, their instruments and their dress blues they perform in. It was a tragedy – especially so close to 4th of July when the band traditionally plays the 1812 Overture in the minutes leading up to the fireworks display.

Fayetteville, the town outside Fort Bragg, sprang into action. The mayor began calling every school in the vicinity with a band looking for instruments to be donated for the night. And a single woman happened to own the music to the 1812 Overture. She donated it to be photocopied by the band director.

On the evening of July 4th, in blue jeans and tshirts, the 82nd Airborne Division band played the 1812 Overture as the fireworks began.

It reminded me what 4th of July is about – a country coming together.

Until next time,

Katie

I’m pretty lucky, I don’t personally know that many Gold Star Families. For those of you not in the know, Gold Star Families are those who have lost a loved one in combat. As I was saying, I don’t know that many personally. The ones I know, I know very well.

The first person I ever knew to die for their country was an Army LTC we’ll call J. He had been “following” my dad for the better part of two decades. He was sort of my dad’s protege and eventually took to replacing my dad whenever my dad changed assignments. His wife, K, used to call our house joking “so where are we moving next?” J and K had been married for 19 years before getting pregnant – something they had given up on years before. Unforunately, J never met his baby girl, he died in Afghanistan about 3 weeks after her birth. K often mentions to me that my dad probably thought she was an awful mess at J’s funeral – my dad says he didn’t really notice because he wouldn’t have expected her to be any other way. K works full time now and as a freshman in college I babysat their little girl from time to time. She’s a beautiful mix of J and K. She’s being raised to know things about her dad, to recognize his picture, and that he is an American hero. Even though it may never make her very sad to not know him, it’s hard to miss someone you’ve never met, I hope she’s at least proud of him and knows that he will always be proud of her.

The other family I know is an Air Force LTC we’ll call M. I didn’t know M until I was 16 years old, but sophomore year of high school he and his wife, J, and their 2 kids lived down the street from us. They were the sweetest, cutest family I think I had ever met. I babysat those two children often but after moving that summer it would be several years before I saw them again. It would be my 20th birthday and I would be in Fort Bragg, saying hello and goodbye to M as he boarded a plane for Afghanistan. I also met the newest addition to their family. 7 months later, I would receive a phone call from my mom telling me M had died. J has helped those kids cope so much with the loss of their father. I saw a picture of them recently, on the first anniversary of their father’s death – they looked happy and healthy as they crowded around his grave at Arlington. There was an awareness that though their hero was not with them, he is always remembered.

As I said, I don’t know that many Gold Star Families – fortunately. But those I do know are the strongest, most gracious families I have met. I do my best to remember their heroes in my own memories and to be awed by the way they live their lives – in celebration of the life of the Hero they love and miss.

Until next time,

Katie

We’ve discussed the basics of Camp Desert Kids – the information about how much fun it is and how to register. I thought I’d talk more about what I really hope it achieves.

I was lucky, I was 15 the first time my dad ever deployed. However, before 9/11 I had never even heard of Afghanistan and now my dad was boarding a plane for it. So, over the next 10 months I read every book I could find about Afghanistan, about Pakistan, about Iran, eventually about the Middle East. Although, Afghanistan is not part of the Middle East. I needed to know, because to me, knowing something…anything…made the whole thing a lot less scary.

So, I learned about Islam and its history. I learned about how kids there have religious education the same way I went to Sunday School. I learned that many kids there didn’t go to school for very long, especially if they were a girl, and that women couldn’t vote. Burkas and head scarves didn’t bother me, I didn’t view it as a way of oppressing women, simply a tradition that wasn’t my business to judge.

And the more I learned about Afghanistan, the less scared I was. In fact, I became completely fascinated and turned it into a degree when I got to college. Funny, huh?

So, I hope when kids come into Camp Desert Kids, often much younger than I was for that first deployment and usually not on their first deployment I hope they learn something that makes them feel better. I hope that the knowledge that if they drove for 5 straight days at 60 mph, they could get from NC to Kabul makes them feel better. I hope the idea of dad kicking a soccer ball back to a kid in an Afghan village makes them smile.

I mostly hope they don’t grow up fearing people from the Middle East and Central Asia. And they learn that deployment can be less scary if you just know somethings about the where. Even if you don’t always understand the why.

Until next time,

Katie

Libraries inspire military children to read.

by Elaine Wilson
American Forces Press Service

6/15/2010 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) – Defense Department library officials have embarked on their first departmentwide summer reading program in hopes of encouraging military children to keep their reading skills sharp during the summer.

More than 250 base libraries will soon set off on “Voyage to Book Island,” an activity-packed reading program in which children are asked to complete four to six books over the course of the summer, said Nilya Carrato, the program assistant for the Navy General Library Program.

While service and installation libraries have sponsored their own programs in the past, “Voyage to Book Island” marks the first departmentwide summer reading program, Ms. Carrato said. This consistency pools resources and enables military children who move this summer to pick up the program, where they left off, at their new installation.

“Especially with all the movement, we want to make sure kids get as much of an advantage as everyone else,” Ms. Carrato said. “Plus, it’s fun.”

Most programs will run for eight weeks with open enrollment throughout the summer, according to a program news release. Activities will vary by location and will include everything from a tropical pool party to the SS Sigonella Storytime. Incentive prizes include bookmarks, T-shirts, stickers and puzzles.

Children who participate are asked to complete the books on their own or, for younger children, with the help of a parent, Ms. Carrato said.

Book choice is left to the reader’s discretion, she added, noting that they can read a variety of fiction and nonfiction, or even the same book several times if they’d like.

Some libraries will offer an online log to track reading progress, while others will use a handwritten log. The libraries with online tracking capabilities offer an added bonus: reserve-component access, Ms. Carrato noted.

No matter the distance, Reserve and guard families can participate in the program by e-mailing dodsumread@navy.mil, and they’ll be put in touch with a base with online program capabilities, she added.

The program is worth pursuing, Ms. Carrato said, especially since reading practice is vital to young learners. Studies show that children who don’t practice reading over the course of the summer may be two to three months behind at the start of the school year. And this effect can be cumulative.

“By the time you leave sixth grade, you could be up to a year behind in reading,” she said. “If you keep engaged, you’ll be ready to move forward instead of playing catch up.”

And for young children, being read to can be just as helpful as practicing reading themselves, she noted.

For installations without a library, Ms. Carrato suggested parents check with their local child and youth program or local summer camp to see if they’re participating in the program.

Ms. Carrato also pointed out a few of the other programs military libraries have to offer this summer, including reading groups, story times, reading program parties, online books, downloadable audio books for car rides, online study guides for summer school attendees and access to Tutor.com, a site that offers free tutoring services 24/7 to military members and their families.