|
|
The
views expressed
on this page are soley those of the author and do not
necessarily
represent the views of County News Online
|
The
Daily Signal
‘Thank You for
Your Service’: How One Organization Is Looking Out for Military Kids
Melissa Quinn
May 01, 2016
Every Saturday, Jihee Ewart’s three sons, Logan, Scott, and Ryan fight
for a spot in front of the computer in their Leesburg, Va., home, where
they patch through a connection on Skype.
Half a world away on a military base in Jordan, Greg Ewart, the boys’
father, waits on the other end. Saturdays are Greg Ewart’s day off, and
if the father of three has access to a computer, he connects with his
family on video calls.
Greg Ewart is a reservist in the Navy, and in August, he left for a
year-long deployment to the Middle East.
Saturdays are the perfect day for Jihee Ewart and her children to
connect with Greg Ewart face-to-face, because, on those mornings,
Logan, Scott, and Ryan take classes in Kempo, a blend of karate and
kung fu, at the Ida Lee Park Recreation Center. When the three boys
talk with their father after class—fighting for who will get access to
him first—they often discuss the new skills they’ve learned.
“The timing can’t be better than that,” Jihee Ewart told The Daily
Signal.
Greg Ewart himself took Kempo classes when he was in his 20s and 30s,
and his sons, following in their father’s footsteps, have been learning
the martial art for three years now.
The boys’ weekly Kempo classes have come at the ideal time for Jihee
and Greg Ewart—Jihee worried that her sons would be hit hard by their
father’s deployment, mainly because they would often practice the sport
together. And with Greg gone a year, Jihee stressed about how their
finances would be impacted. She feared they would have to cancel at
least six months of their Kempo classes.
But thanks to a Virginia-based nonprofit called Our Military Kids,
Logan, Scott, and Ryan have been able to continue their classes,
finding a welcome distraction while their dad is away without putting a
strain on the family’s budget.
“This is a way of saying, you know what, you guys deserve this because
you’re not having your daddy here for a year,” Jihee Ewart said. “It’s
nice that they can focus on something else other than sitting at home
thinking about what else they can do without dad, so this is kind of a
nice distraction for them.”
Our Military Kids provides grants to children of service members in the
National Guard and Reserves, as well as to children of the wounded and
fallen.
Through the program, Logan, 12, Scott, 10, and Ryan, 9, each received
grants to take Kempo classes weekly at the rec center located near
their house.
The organization launched more than a decade ago, and has expanded over
time to serve more military families, Linda Davidson, Our Military
Kids’ co-founder and executive director said.
“The impact has been much greater than I ever anticipated because it
was going from a simple gesture of saying, ‘Thank you for your
service,’ to having an impact on our servicemen and women,” she told
The Daily Signal. “We recognize that there is a family there, and they,
too, serve our country.”
Gratitude Over Charity
When Davidson started Our Military Kids in 2004, it was intended to be
a way for her to thank the families of service members for sacrificing
time spent with their loved ones so Davidson and her family, as well as
millions of others nationwide, could be kept safe.
At the time, Davidson, who has no familial ties to the military, was
working with Army reservists and National Guard members while setting
up a nonprofit under an Army contract. After speaking with military
spouses, she realized that when their husbands or wives were called up
to deploy overseas, that often meant taking a financial hit since they
left behind their day jobs to serve.
For many of those families now struggling to manage their smaller
family budgets, their kids’ extracurricular activities were often the
first to get the ax.
To help some of those families, Davidson started a volunteer effort to
provide grants to children of service members funding the activities of
their choosing.
At first, Davidson and her new organization began serving members of
the National Guard in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. But as
service members spread the word about Our Military Kids, her volunteer
effort exploded.
“When the family is in a stressful situation and the children are
anxious and stressed, it’s a time the extracurriculars become more
important,” Davidson said. “If they’re not in an activity, they should
have something to distract them when they’re undergoing their stress.”
To date, Our Military Kids has given 53,000 grants to children
nationwide and in U.S. territories.
Though the nonprofit originally served only those in the Reserves and
National Guard—which Davidson said helps families connect to their
local communities since they don’t have support from a nearby base—Our
Military Kids expanded in 2008 to include children of those wounded and
the fallen.
“It goes beyond financial support,” Davidson said of the grants her
organization provides. “It means so much to know strangers appreciate
their service and sacrifice, and recognize military families do exist
living in our communities, and we’re saying thank you for your service,
and helping to support their most precious asset.”
Each of the grants Our Military Kids provides is worth up to $500, and
they cover activity fees for up to six months.
Since its inception, the organization has given grants to children
involved in sports programs, the fine arts, and to those who need
tutoring for college placement exams or want to become involved in STEM
programs. Two children in Louisiana and Oklahoma even used Our Military
Kids grants to raise a prize-winning goat and prize-winning steer,
respectively, through 4-H projects.
For eight years, Our Military Kids received funding through grants
awarded by the National Guard, though the amount of funding sometimes
varied. But in July 2014, when the Pentagon enacted steep budget cuts,
funding opportunities for Our Military Kids were cut.
Now, the group entirely relies on private-sector funds and donations.
In addition to focusing solely on military families, and specifically
their children, Our Military Kids differs from other military-focused
nonprofits in the percentage of money it spends directly on
beneficiaries.
According to Charity Navigator, 92 percent of Our Military Kids’ budget
goes toward funding its programs. By comparison, the Wounded Warrior
Project spends 59.9 percent of its expenses on programs and services,
and TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, spends 81.5
percent of its expenses on programs and services.
“We really want each donated dollar to help as many children as we
can,” Davidson said. “When our donors write that check, that’s what
we’re expecting. They’re expecting kids to play baseball. They’re not
writing a check for us to advertise or receive big salaries.”
Unlike other organizations that are household names, Our Military Kids
has flown under the radar since its inception. For Davidson, that can
be both a blessing and a curse.
“My biggest fear is that we as a nation are not recognizing there are a
lot of families impacted by overseas deployment, and because of budget
cuts, there are less support services,” Davidson said. “Our nation was
aware of the dangers five years ago, but those going now, the numbers
are lower, but there are still a large number going [overseas] and they
deserve our support, too.”
Lessons of Mixed Martial Arts
Sarah Padilla, 5, is easily the smallest child participating in a mixed
martial arts class at Pentagon Mixed Martial Arts on this Monday
afternoon.
With her thick, curly hair pulled back in a ponytail and stark white
uniform, held closed by the yellow belt— earned in October—tied around
her waist, she, and a class of a dozen other children, are learning the
craft.
Together, they punch, kick, and spar with one another through their
30-minute lesson.
Sarah Padilla’s interest in mixed martial arts began when Padilla and
her mother, Ray Payton, were taking a trip to the farmers market
located near Pentagon Mixed Martial Arts. As they headed to the market
and passed by the gym, Padilla, who was 3 years old at the time, stood
watching a group train through an open garage door.
Payton had a hard time prying her daughter away and decided to enroll
her in courses not long after. A grant from Our Military Kids funded
her first 26 classes.
It was Sarah Padilla’s Marine Corps father, Raphael, who first heard
about the organization after he was wounded and receiving care at Camp
Lejeune in North Carolina.
Raphael and Ray are divorced, and Sarah Padilla didn’t meet her father
until she was nine months old. Her father was deployed to the Middle
East when she was born and was stationed in North Carolina.
Payton filled out an application with the nonprofit through its wounded
warrior program. Within days, Payton learned her daughter qualified for
a grant for more than two dozen mixed martial arts classes lasting 13
weeks.
“She’s a strong, independent child, but it’s expensive to be put in
other activities,” Payton said. “I’ll give to church and [other
charities], but it was very odd to need help myself.”
Sarah Padilla continues to attend two 30-minute mixed martial arts
classes per week, though she no longer receives grants from Our
Military Kids.
“I didn’t know about Our Military Kids,” Payton said. “I never would’ve
thought it was out there and the difference it made in my child’s life.”
Since starting mixed martial arts, Payton has noticed a change in her
child. Though she may end up a bit bruised and scratched after sparring
with her classmates at the gym—and has even come off the mat with a
bloody nose—Payton said Padilla has become more focused and disciplined.
“She wouldn’t be as focused as she is,” Payton said of her daughter.
“Maturity naturally happens, and [her mixed martial arts teachers] keep
reiterating how much she’s grown.”
When Padilla tested for her yellow belt in October, her father, himself
a green belt in karate, came from North Carolina to watch.
Padilla earned a red stripe on her yellow belt earlier this week, and
Payton expects her daughter will test for her green belt within the
next three weeks.
Remembering Those Left at Home
During separate conversations with The Daily Signal, Jihee Ewart and
Payton became emotional when talking about the help that Our Military
Kids has provided them.
Both mothers admitted it wasn’t in their nature to ask for help, and
they’ve even had feelings of guilt for accepting grants from the
organization. But Ewart and Payton expressed sincere gratitude for Our
Military Kids, particularly because it has helped their children.
“Different organizations always pay attention to military members,”
Payton said as she watched her daughter’s class. “But sometimes you
forget the people left at home—the person left behind to do everything.”
“Because I don’t have a wound,” she continued, “people don’t think you
have a need.”
Ewart’s husband doesn’t return from a deployment until June, and she,
unlike service members on active duty, doesn’t have a close network of
military spouses around that other families living on or near a base
do—a challenge Davidson, Our Military Kids’ co-founder, recognized when
she first started her organization.
Over the last nine months, Ewart has found herself turning to Our
Military Kids for support, corresponding with staff on the phone and
through email.
“Even if I meet a family that’s active duty and they have kids, I
understand it now more than I did before,” Ewart said. “The friends
that I live around, they don’t have husbands or wives that deploy.”
For Davidson, hearing from military spouses like Ewart and Payton has
reaffirmed the mission of Our Military Kids and serves as a reminder
that her organization isn’t a charity, but rather a program of
recognition.
“When we started the program 12 years ago, I wanted to make sure this
did not appear to be a charity,” Davidson said. “Our servicemen and
women are very proud, and there’s no expectation on their part. I
wanted them to feel appreciated, and I wanted a way to say thank you
for your service.
“My family isn’t serving, and in a small way, I want to say thank you,
military family, for volunteering to protect.”
Read this and other articles at The Daily Signal
|
|
|
|
