According to the National Retail Federation, the average person with children in grades K-12 will spend nearly $689.00 for school supplies. For some military families that amount can take a significant bite out of their already tight budgets.
Each year, the USO of Metropolitan Washington (USO-Metro) hosts its Operation Back to School event in which military children living in the Washington-Baltimore region participate in a day filled with fun educational games and activities. Educational stations include core subject activities such as reading, do-the-math hopscotch, Jeopardy-style history trivia, geography map madness, science crystals creation, first day of school photo frame art, and dancing for gym. USO-Metro and contributing corporate sponsors volunteer as “teachers” throughout the event.
Upon completion of each class, children receive a “stamp” in their report cards which they turn in to receive a backpack filled with school supplies. Backpacks include notebooks, folders, pencil pouches, pencils, erasers, scissors, markers, crayons, and a note from contributing sponsors wishing the children luck as they head back to school. Major sponsors include DynCorp International, BAE Systems, Google, and Hewlett Packard/AMD.
“It was amazing to see how many families came to participate in the event at our Fort Belvoir and Fort Meade sites this year,” said Beth Messerli, USO-Metro volunteer and event organizer for the 2012 Operation Back to School event. “The excited faces of our military youth as they jumped on a hopscotch calculator to solve math equations, created a photo frame for first day of school photos, or danced the Interlude dance for gym class made the months of planning all worth it,” said Messerli.
Although one of the purposes of USO-Metro’s Operation Back to School event is to provide some financial relief to local military families, that is not the primary goal. According to the Department of Defense, military children can attend up to seven to nine schools before they graduate from high school with many moving almost every two years. The transient life of the military family can be especially challenging for children as the struggle to make new friends in a new community.
“What is so great about events like this is that it provides military members and their kids the chance to get out and talk to other kids and allows parents the opportunity to meet other parents,” said Marie Riogtti Vaughn who recently retired from the Air Force and has 7-year-old twins. “It’s nice to have things happening on the installation where families can come together and have the chance to get to know each other a little bit better,” said Riogtti.
Operation Back to School is just one of many programs organized by USO-Metro in an effort to fulfill its mission “to lift the spirits of our American troops and their families.” In the Washington-Baltimore region, USO-Metro serves more than 500,000 military members and their families at five USO centers, four airport lounges, and through its Mobile USO, which to date has traveled more than 18,000 miles throughout the tri-state region.
Studies have shown that multiple and extended deployments of a military parent can lead to a variety of challenges for military children resulting in extreme stress, difficulty sleeping, and anxiety. Even upon the return of a deployed parent, children and spouses can experience a wide variety of stressors as integration into civilian life for the service member after months, and sometimes years of combat can leave a family feeling disconnected.
Thanks to the extraordinary support of individuals, corporations and non-governmental organizations in the Washington-Baltimore region, USO-Metro is able to provide a strong support system for local military members and their families through its family-focused programs.
Other family programs include Operation Basic Boot Camp in which military children experience a day of military-style bootcamp activities along with teambuilding activities with other military youth. Operation Basic Boot Camp builds self-confidence, and teamwork skills while helping military youth to better understand their parent’s service.
During the holiday season, USO-Metro also hosts the Turkeys for Troops program where junior-enlisted families receive a Thanksgiving turkey basket with all the trimmings of a feast. One of USO-Metro’s most popular and personal programs is Project USO Elf, where individuals volunteer to be a military child’s “elf.” These elves receive an anonymous wish list from the child and have the opportunity to personally shop for the gifts.
“We know people like to give back to their local communities,” said Elaine Rogers, President and CEO of USO of Metropolitan Washington, “as one of the oldest military non-profit organizations in the country serving one of the largest military populations in the world, USO-Metro simply couldn’t do what it does every day for our military community without the support of local people.”
Since the inception of Operation Back to School three years ago, the program has helped provide school supplies for elementary school-aged military children. USO-Metro’s goal is to extend the program to middle and high school-aged youth to include school supplies such as scientific calculators, protractors, flash drives and other higher-priced electronic gadgets.
USO-Metro receives no federal dollars; donations from individuals and corporations are vital in order to continue the family-focused programs such as Operation Back to School and the more than 25 other stand-alone programs, and 100 unit-support opportunities each year. (I don’t understand what you mean by unit support?)
Currently USO-Metro is seeking $50 donations for its Turkeys for Troops program being held this November. Donations can be made online at www.usometro.org. Click on the patriotic
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