AMBASSADOR FOR THE SPEAK OUT FOR MILITARY KIDS TEXAS TEAM

By Logan 16,  Texas      Thursday, September 14, 2006

As an ambassador for the Speak Out for Military Kids Texas Team, I have had the opportunity to view the changes that Operation: Military Kids has caused in the attitudes of other kids as well as how it has changed me. Also, as the brother of a National Guard soldier, I have experienced the same and more effects of deployment than most other kids. This means that I can relate to their problems and also give them something I didn't have: support. While my brother was being deployed, I did not have the same support that other families had because we did not live near a military base. When he was deployed, he left his two sons with my family, and since my parents had to work, I had to take care of these two kids by myself all day. I was suddenly their main parent and did everything that a real parent has to do, including potty training, how to eat with utensils, how to talk and teaching them how to read; among other things. Now I know what my parents had to go through. When I started speaking and giving support for Operation Military Kids, I realized how much help it would have been to have somebody like me who could relate to my problems. During an Operation Purple Camp, I was able to help a few kids that were having trouble being away from their remaining parent. I have also given speeches around Texas to inform kids about the benefits of this program and tell them about our support, and also to inform parents about the effects of deployment on the kids. Also, it is to inform them about the kids' stresses because they are very different from their parents'. So far, I have collected over 200 Huggables for the program and I am still having more come in every day. I have given interviews for newspaper articles and now the communities around me know about the program. I do not want to see this program fail for lack of support for the very people we are trying to help. This should have been started years ago for kids and to help them through the various stages of a parent or sometimes both parents being gone. I feel that I have touched many lives with my speeches, helping with camp, and helping get the program started in other communities. I also feel that other kids have touched my life and helped me come to a better understanding of what I went through and what my nephews went through and how hard it was for them to adjust being moved half way across the country to live with me and their grandparents at such a young age. Please consider all the youth that will once again be left out without the support of this kind of program. After all they too are heroes.

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