When a member of the armed forces is sent overseas their loved ones and children are usually left behind.
April officially became the month of the military child since 1986. Today is “Purple Up! For Military Kids” and Linda Gerber, program coordinator for Operation: Military Kids said she encourages people to don purple today to remind military children that their communities are thinking of them.
“They make sacrifices and they take on extra responsibility when they have a parent gone and we want to let them know they are heroes to us too,” Gerber said.
“Purple Up! For Military Kids” is a nationwide program of Operation: Military Kids. OMK is a part of the University of Idaho’s Cooperative Extension. It began in 2005 and Gerber said it was a collaboration between 4-H, military and local groups.
OMK works with a list of state partners including: 4-H Extension, American Legion, Army Reserves Child & Youth Services, Army One Source, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Idaho Air National Guard Family Readiness, Idaho Dept. of Education and others.
Gerber said a celebration today in Boise will include activities for children and a reading of Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s proclamation naming April the official month of the Idaho Military Child.
Gerber said part of the reason that we need to have a month for military children is to acknowledge how many children are waiting for a parent to return home from serving our country. Of America’s active military troops, 55 percent are married and 40 percent have at least two children.
LeAnn Edwards, Idaho National Guard State Youth Coordinator of Family Programs, said one of the primary objectives of the Month of the Military Child is to get people to realize they know children who are in military families.
“It’s to get people to get out and recognize the fact that they have military kids that are their neighbors, that go to their church, maybe they go to school with … sometimes people just don’t know, they don’t even realize that their kids and their family members are putting up with some really heavy challenges,” Edwards said.
Edwards said a wide array of schools, businesses and retirement homes promise to wear purple today.
Edwards said the groups involved into today’s activities have asked that everyone decide how they can celebrate military children in their own way, but they also join in wearing purple today.
“We’re asking the community to put their thinking caps on and ask what they can specifically do,” Edwards said. “Wear purple or put things up on their bulletin boards.”
Jacob Dyer can be reached at [email protected]