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An Introduction: “Do You Have a Frog in your Pocket?”
Last week we published a blog in our Marketing to Military resource and the business owner was so military friendly we thought that we should share it today in our Military Family blog as well. It is a smooth read but what she says about the military community says a lot about her business. We like what she said about us too! So, read and enjoy! PS: If you know a military family owned, veteran owned or military friendly business share the blog with them too! “Do You Have a Frog in your Pocket?” Something caught my eye, increased the focus, sped up the senses a bit, made me look…
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On Your Way to a Smooth Move: DoD Roundtable
It is that time! PCS season is upon us and many military families are negotiating orders and beginning the process of planning for a move. With that in mind, I had a great chance to listen to and speak with Barbara Thompson, Director, Office of Family Policy/Children & Youth, Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. We all know that a PCS can be an amazing adventure but also an incredible stressor on families. I have an example for you; in the late 80’s my family moved from Ft. Walton Beach, Florida to Keflavik, Iceland. Can you say, “Change of scenery”? In the end the move to Iceland was…
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The Home Depot Celebration of Service 2012 – Meet a military family.
The Home Depot Celebration of Service 2012 – Meet the Purvis family! I had the pleasure of meeting the Purvis family in GrandRapids, Michigan last week, as a part of The Home Depot Celebration of Service 2012. The Home Depot provided them (that we delivered) with decorations, a corner Christmas tree, and an opportunity to meet a wonderful family. Throughout my time with the family we shared plenty of laughs and a few serious and emotional topics. Mr. Purvis has been in the Army National Guard forabout 11 years. He has been deployed 3 times,to Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan. The family’s living room wall is covered in pictures and memories…
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CELEBRATION OF SERVICE KICKS OFF – THE HOME DEPOT
An exciting program is launching today, The Home Depot Foundation and The Home Depot store associates are deploying a two-month community outreach initiative, Celebration of Service to transform the homes and lives of veterans across the country. From September 6 to Veterans Day in November, store associate volunteers will complete hundreds of service projects – from making mobility modifications to the homes of injured veterans to renovating shelters for homeless veterans. Volunteer projects also will include energy efficient upgrades to homes of individual veterans and facilities that serve them to help reduce utility bills. Over the next four months, the MilitaryAvenue.com team will be partnering with The Home Depot as…
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Month of the Military Child and a Get Together
The Month of the Military Child provides a great focus on a special group of Americans! One unique way to enjoy military kids: Good friends traveling across many miles to see each other. Military brats will always find a way to get together. MilitaryAvenue’s Dan had very special guests: friends from high school and on into adult hood. Both guys were young when they met at Keflavik Naval Air Station, Iceland and when follow on PCS assignments for their parents brought them together again in Virginia, the friendship bonded. Now, both have wonderful children of their own which we held, hugged, laughed about and told stories before we digressed into…
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A Quick Review of 2011 on the Military-Family Blog from MilitaryAve…
What happened to 2011? It is almost gone and the MilitaryAvenue team discussed all the activity we had seen this year! So much to do and write about. We saw the troops come from Iraq, discussions on the military drawdown for 2012 and beyond, military health issues at the forefront, homeless veteran initiatives, veteran employment resources, entertainers supporting the troops, we even grabbed the chance to attend the Military Bloggers Conference and so much more. MilAve’s Leanne Kocsis,Inaugural Blogger of Month at USAAMany of our regular features such Tasty Tuesday Recipes, the DoD Blogger Roundtable features on issues impacting the military community, book reviews, veteran support and military children articles…
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“Celebration of Service” – Helping out Veterans
Loading supplies for veteran’s homes!It started early, involved 1,170 volunteer hours at four veterans’ homes by the end of the day according to Doug Bellah, Home Depot Store Manager, Kentwood, MI! All volunteers, helping veterans get ready for Michigan’s winter, improving their homes, lifestyle needs and more. Their shirts were orange and said, Celebration of Service and included a budget of $8,000 for the four homes’ improvements and had workers from eight Home Depot Stores from Western Michigan – Ludington, Muskegon, Grand Rapids, Alpine … Dan and I traveled to one site to talk with Mark, a 3 ID Army veteran from 1993-1996. With a family of six, they were…
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Motown has a new Veterans Homeless Facility and Park!
A Park for Veterans is being createdMotown has a new Veterans Homeless Facility and Park! It was not exactly the smooth sounds or motions of Motown but a blur of noise, colors (mostly orange), activity, yard equipment movements, cars and trucks being guided by traffic guards, pounding hammers, wheelbarrows rolling, noisy chippers, buckets carried, … It was heartening to see in the “rustic” downtown area of Detroit to see these bright orange clad volunteers turning the sounds of cacophony into a smooth jazz park for our homeless veterans in the area! MilitaryAvenue’s MilAve_Dan and Mil_Col_K had to follow up on this kind offer to see and report on this Volunteers…
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We Will Never Forget – 10 Year Anniversary of 9/11/01
Why I will never forget … You can ask me where I was on Sept 11th, 2001 and I am instantly brought back to my apartment. (I worked from home); sitting at my desk; nursing a migraine headache. I can remember calling my husband; IMing my co-worker, Dan; learning that my dad, a colonel in the Air Force, was on high alert with a very long day (month … year…) ahead of him. Tears would stream down my face periodically throughout the day. For me life had changed. But what about my children? They weren’t alive. Ask the generations that are in high school and younger and they really may…
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PCS from Iraq! Good Stewards of American Taxpayer Dollars – DoD Blogger Roundtable
PCS Fun 1 million pieces of US Government owned equipment still in Iraq! Imagine the most difficult PCS you ever faced? I remember one that was so complex it makes my head hurt! We had most of our household goods going into temporary storage and some into long term storage (3 years) and a small amount being flown to the overseas PCS location. We had to have family travel stuff and I was going to school and had personal items and professional goods being shipped to that location. I am sure my director of logistics (my bride who experienced 18 PCS moves) would have more details but then I took…
