Flipping through some of my old blogs last night, I realized that I never posted the pictures from our work with the kids from the Operation Purple camp (a program of National Military Families Association)! [The Operation Purple program “…was created as a way to help military children who are struggling with the stresses of war. The program aims to help military kids experience carefree fun while also learning coping skills to deal with deployment-related stress and fostering relationships with other children who know what they are going through.” (National Military Families Association)]

 There were a few days when we didn’t have internet speed fast enough to post the pictures, and I didn’t realize I never posted them once we were in an area where our internet card worked well. I’m excited to show everyone these pictures. It’s some of the most fun I’ve had during ASM4P thus far! Our work with these kids from Operation Purple gave them a bit of understanding and empathy for the children of Iraq and Afghanistan. The story I told them about the kids in Iraq truly moved them, perhaps because so much of their lives are already flooded with information about these countries in conflict. I think giving the kids an opportunity to gain some perspective and a relatedness to the children of these countries (which many of their parents are serving in) really may have helped them build an understanding of the complexity of the situation and the hardships the children of these countries are going through. 

We also gave the kids the opportunity to help their peers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lots of them approached us with fundraising ideas they wanted to do when they got home. We encouraged them to do so and asked them to write their ideas down on a piece of paper. We ended up with big STACK of papers full of ideas these kids wanted to do.  Focusing on helping others and gaining a perspective and understanding…I believe these things helped this group of kids deal with their own issues in a very profound way. 

Talking to the kids from Operation Purple

We gave the kids from Operation Purple the few WKR dog tags we had. It seemed fitting.

What a great bunch of kids.

Shirt signing party!

After signing around 80 shirts, I got one of my own!

Giving a kid a hand.