I couldn't think of a better thread title.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st...s/military_kids

Quote:

Army Reaches Out to Kids of Reservists





By JAMES HANNAH, Associated Press Writer Thu May 5, 9:27 AM ET

LONDON, Ohio - Sixteen-year-old Emily Rohner was scared and worried during the nine months her father was with the National Guard in Kosovo. And she had nobody like her to turn to.

"It was hard," Emily said, recalling those many days as she had a bowl of cereal at her kitchen table. "I'm about to cry."

She didn't know anyone her own age who also had a parent like her dad. She didn't have any peer support.

The Army recognizes the isolation that children of military reservists often feel and is working with the 4-H Club — with its nationwide reach — to connect more of them through summer camps, computer labs and potluck dinners. The activities are free.

"It's a very stressful situation to be a suddenly military family," said Theresa Ferrari, extension specialist with 4-H Youth Development in Ohio. "Some kids withdraw."

Emily's father, Staff Sgt. Ralph Rohner, 37, joined the National Guard 20 years ago. But until he was sent to Kosovo in 2004 as a peacekeeping policeman, his wife and three daughters didn't think of themselves as a military family. They didn't live near anyone else in their situation.

"One of the problems with the National Guard is the members are so spread out in a geographical area it's harder for the kids to link up with each other so they can have an empathetic support group," said Ralph Rohner, who returned home from Kosovo in March.

"Operation: Military Kids" was tested in five states beginning in January 2004 and then nine more last summer. Last month, six more states were added, including Ohio. So far, the states have received a total of $1.9 million from the Army.

The money is being used to buy portable computer labs outfitted with 15 laptops, cameras, printers and other gear so that children can e-mail and send photos or videos to deployed parents or fellow military kids. States can put the labs in roving vehicles or transport the equipment from one place to another.

Organizers also are going one step further. In Ohio, a 4-H summer camp for children of deployed reservists ages 10 to 15 will be held in southern Ohio's Clinton County in July.

The idea is to create a getaway from the pressures, with canoeing and other typical camp activities, along with time for campers to talk with 4-H counselors and military volunteers about what they're going through.

"Simply knowing there is someone else in that same situation, you don't feel alone anymore," Ferrari said. "We would like to look for ways to help them thrive under that stress."

In Iowa, children of military families have formed a speakers bureau in which they go to gatherings around the state and talk to their counterparts, sharing emotions and tips for coping. Potluck dinners and ice cream socials are used to link military families.

The program helped connect 16-year-old Sarah Thede of Boone, Iowa, with other military kids. Her father was deployed to
Afghanistan for nine months in 2003 with the National Guard.

"It just helped to talk about it with people," she said.

In Washington state, deployed reservists' children were invited to a Halloween haunted hangar at Fairchild Air Force Base. Another event provided children with cameras so they could make scrapbooks for their deployed parents.

The program also helped train teachers, counselors and after-school providers to be sensitive to the children's situation.

"Every day these kids turn on the TV, another soldier is killed and they have to go in and take a biology test and they don't know if it is their mom or dad," said Chris Gleason, state military liaison for Iowa 4-H.



Sounds like a good idea to me. Has there been anything else like this before?

"Well when I talk to people I don't have to worry about spelling." - wannabuyamonkey "If Schumacher’s last effort was the final nail in the coffin then Year One would’ve been the crazy guy who stormed the graveyard, dug up the coffin and put a bullet through the franchise’s corpse just to make sure." -- From a review of Darren Aronofsky & Frank Miller's "Batman: Year One" script