The Comfort Crew for Military Kids is Holding a Free Summer Camp for Military Kids to Help Them Cope with the Stress of Having a Parent Deployed
Austin, Texas — Camp Mabry is deploying hundreds of military women and men overseas to fight for our country in the coming days and today for the second year in a row, The Comfort Crew for Military Kids, a national non-profit based in Austin, Texas, is hosting a summer camp for military children to help their children cope with the stress and fears of having a parent serve in our military. Camp Hero for Military Kids is offering a free camp this week for central Texas military children ages 12-17 and will focus on helping campers express and cope with the emotions of having a parent serving our country at a time of war.
The media is invited to visit with these kids and their parents to get their unique perspective about the sacrifice they are making as kids who have a parent serving our country. Some of these children have seen their parent deployed 5 or 6 times overseas or have moved multiple times from school to school as their parent is assigned different posts. Studies show these children face high levels of anxiety, fear and stress and need the support of our community.
“Their parents are serving our country and are gone from home for long periods of time serving in dangerous areas of the world and most people in Austin and across the country do not understand the toll it takes on children when they have a parent deployed in a war zone for an extended period of time. Their mother or father may miss their birthday or Christmas or may be injured or killed and these kids worry and endure a lot of stress,” said Trevor Romain, Co-Founder of The Comfort Crew for Military Kids.
Trevor Romain, Co-Founder of the Comfort Crew for Military Kids, will speak at Camp Hero and lead a community service project to put together Comfort Kits for young children ages 6-12 who are facing or have faced a parent deployed.
Romain speaks with thousands of military children each year and has developed the Deployment Comfort Kits with the USO to help children cope with the stress and hardship of having a parent deployed.
Camp Hero for Military Kids focuses on physical, social and emotional resiliency for military children creating an environment that promotes a peer-to-peer culture of support within the military and the community as a whole. The camp is free of charge thanks to generous sponsors and dedicated volunteers.
There are more than 2 million military children in the United States who are dealing with really tough issues and are in great need of support. Of those, approximately 1.2 million are school-aged children and more than 1 million children have experienced one or more parental deployments, with a significant number of these parents having been away from their children for as long as 48 months.
Kids participating in the camp will be journaling, participating in physical fitness exercises and assembling deployment kits Friday at the camp and be available to do interviews with the media. The Deployment Kit that will be assembled during the camp center on the With You All the Way! DVD, created by the Trevor Romain Company with the USO, contains valuable resources to help children deal with the stress of having a parent serving in the military. Whether the children are dealing with pre-deployment, deployment or reintegration, we’re with you all the way, helping children to express their emotions and connect with their family members. The Deployment Kit includes: the animated DVD With You All the Way! Dealing With Deployment; a writing journal with prompts, calendar, map, and activities; a caregiver booklet; a set of ten postcards featuring original artwork by bestselling author Trevor Romain; Cuzzie, a plush bear offering support and companionship; and a pair of imprinted dog tags to share with the deploying parent. All of this is housed in a Cuzzie Cargo Case to keep treasured items safe while a loved one is deployed.
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The Comfort Crew for Military Kids
The Comfort Crew for Military Kids was founded in 2007 to support and comfort children managing the challenges of today’s military life, including deployment, reintegration, moving, visible and invisible injuries, and grief. Since its inception, The Comfort Crew has endeavored to meet this goal by working directly with military children and families, recognizing their unique challenges, providing educational resources, and supporting physical and emotional resiliency.
Trevor Romain and The Comfort Crew, in partnership with the USO, work directly with our military children, visiting them on and off bases around the world. The Comfort Crew has also produced a series of comfort kits that are customized to meet the specific needs of military children, including the With You All the Way! Deployment Kit, the Taking Care of You! Support for Kids of Injured Heroes Kit, the PCS: The Great Moving Adventure Survival Kit, and the Helping Military Children Handle Grief Kit. In addition, The Comfort Crew for Military Kids regularly hosts events designed to promote awareness and the physical and emotional resiliency of military children.
Whether visiting with a military child at school, providing a Care Kit to help with the obstacles of reintegration, or educating our community about ways to support resiliency, our goal is to let these children and their families know they do not have to shoulder the burdens of military life on their own — we are With You All the Way!