This article is from the Extension Connection newsletter, Summer 2006.
Iowa State University Extension is partnering with the American Legion to help Iowa youth stay in touch with their deployed parents.
An Operation Military Kids (OMK) Mobile Tech Lab where kids can create greeting cards on computers and then print and send them to their deployed parents is making stops throughout Iowa this summer. The mobile tech lab was in Cherokee County June 10 for a Veterans Appreciation Day.
“It’s been great working with ISU Extension and getting the Operation Military Kids program going in Cherokee County,” said Claudia Brown, president of Treptow American Legion Post 230. “We have so many servicemen and women deployed right now and their families are left behind. The children miss their mom or dad and need our support, however we can give it to them.”
The lab also will be making stops at the Clinton, Jackson and Jones county fairs, and Operation Purple Camp, a free camp for children whose parents are or have been deployed. Approximately 100 youth have been involved with the mobile tech lab so far, and 400 have been involved with the OMK program, which puts children of military families in contact with other youth in similar situations.
“It’s really helped me because I can express what it’s like to be in a military family and what all the people go through who are in military families,” one youth said. “I’m the only one in my whole entire school who has a parent in the military on active duty. So none of my friends really know what it is like to be in a military family.”
4-H has been associated with the Army for 10 years. However, when heavy deployment began, the Army decided to reach out to all branches of the military and the large number of geographically dispersed military families with no access to the military support systems located on military bases.
“Staying in contact with their parents helps military kids cope during deployment,” said Chris Gleason, ISU Extension OMK project coordinator. “So this is another method to help them communicate with their parents, and at the same time it teaches them about technology.”
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