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Resources to help Gold Star children
Return to Loved Ones of the Fallen Resource Directory - LINK
Scroll down to learn more about these resources:
(Additional resources listed above)
Birthday gift
Blanket
Christmas gifts
DVD resource kit
Grief comfort kit
Journal
Matthew Bear
Mentoring and developmental activities, peer support
Support for programs for surviving spouses and children
VFW National Home for Children
Birthday gift
A Soldier's Child
A Soldier's Child Birthday Foundation was established to stand by the children of the military men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice while protecting our lives and our country's freedom. Our benefits are available to the children, 19 years of age and younger, whose parent, from any branch of the military, lost his or her life while on active duty.
With humility as parents, we aim to keep the legacy of the soldier alive by celebrating the birthday of his or her children. Recipients will receive a gift from ASC on each birthday through age 19.
Blanket
Project Linus
Project Linus comforts by providing handmade blankets to children in countries around the world who have survived the ravages of war and destruction. Post September 11, 2001, chapters all over the United States were providing blankets to children in New York and Washington to let them know someone cared.
In January 2002, Marleen Manley, Coordinator of the Northwest Atlanta Chapter, believed this effort should be continued for every child who had lost a parent in the war on terror. She became the national coordinator in the effort to comfort the children of our fallen heroes with the gift of a handmade blanket. The task involves researching every soldier killed in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom to determine if they had children and if so, where they are currently living. Once determined, Marleen contacts the Project Linus coordinator closest to the family and provides them with information on the children in order for them to pick the perfect blanket. If there is no coordinator in that area, the Northwest Atlanta Chapter provides the blankets.
Christmas gifts
A Soldier's Child S.O.S. Christmas (Alabama, Colorado, Kentucky/Indiana, Tennessee)
A Soldier’s Child seeks to be responsible for over 500 Gold Star children having a blessed Christmas morning. There will be caring folks from Tennessee, Georgia, Colorado and Kentucky areas giving back to these children through ASC’s S.O.S Christmas, giving these special military children reason to smile when they wake up on Christmas day. With the love that the Christmas season offers and through your help these children will know that it did matter, and we do care!
Believe with Me American Gold Star Christmas
Gold Star families are invited to register their children for Christmas gifts and thankful Americans from all across the country donate so that volunteers (many are high school and university students) can shop for, wrap, and package gifts for 1000 children of fallen soldiers.
Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund, Inc (Sarasota, FL)
Help us provide gift cards to approximately 50 surviving military children for the upcoming holidays.
Honor and Courage Foundation
Adopt a Wounded Warrior/Gold Star family/Vietnam veteran -- Our goal is to help wounded/ill/injured (WII) warrior military families, Gold Star families, and Vietnam Veterans in need with Christmas and Hanukkah presents for their children, along with a grocery gift card or prepaid Visa gift card for the family to purchase their holiday dinner and trimmings. This is a great way to connect one on one with WII warrior military families or gold star families to offer a special Thank You this holiday season by providing food and gifts. Sponsor families, businesses, organizations or individuals who sign up here will be matched with a WII or Gold Star military family to help them have a great holiday meal and presents for their children.
Military Friends (Massachusetts)
This year the Ahern Family Charitable Foundation (AFCF) will again partner with the Military Friends Foundation to support “Operation Santa-Massachusetts”, a program that supports children of Fallen Heroes and children of deployed or wounded service members.
DVD resource kit
When Families Grieve (Sesame Street)
Talk, Listen, Connect: When Families Grieve is a DVD resource kit featuring Elmo and the Sesame Street Muppets, and the courageous stories of families who have experienced the death of a parent. The bilingual (English and Spanish) kit includes a DVD, children’s storybook, and guide for parents and caregivers. The kit gives families tools to support children coping with the death of a parent, while also providing reassurance that together with their families they can learn ways of being there for each other and move forward.
Grief comfort kit
Trevor Romain Memory Box Grief Comfort Kit
This Trevor Romain comfort kit for kids is centered on the Parents Choice Gold Award-winning DVD, What on Earth Do You Do When Someone Dies? The DVD uses gentle humor, original music, and a compassionate storyline to pass along practical and helpful advice for kids. Despite the serious subject matter, kids of all ages are enlightened and encouraged as Trevor's characters learn how to move towards grief instead of running away from it.
The kit includes:
- What On Earth Do You Do When Someone Dies? (DVD)
- What On Earth Do You Do When Someone Dies? (book)
- A journal for self-expression with original artwork and writing prompts
- Coco™, a plush animal offering comfort and companionship
- Helping Children Cope With Loss (booklet for caregivers)
- A letter from Coco and set of colored pencils
- A special memory box to protect treasured keepsakes
Journal
My Life Continued
Health Net Federal Services' children’s initiative launched to provide additional resources to help children successfully navigate the unique challenges of military families face. You may download the journals, save, print or link to the journals as often as you like at no cost.
My Life Continued is a bereavement journal for military children who have lost a parent or loved one who served in the military. The journal is a private place to write down thoughts and feelings and was created to help children remember and honor their loved one and help them apply that love in a productive way as they move forward in their lives.
Matthew Bear
The Matthew Freeman Project
We would love to provide bears to all of you who are mourning the loss of someone special. However, we are a very small group and are doing this just for fallen service member’s families and those who have died in the performance of their duties.
Mentoring and developmental activities, peer support
Active Valor (San Diego, CA)
Active Valor is a combat veteran run non-profit organization in San Diego, CA dedicated to giving new purpose to veterans by pairing them as mentors to children of our nation’s fallen heroes, referred to as Gold Star Children.
Angels of America's Fallen
Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, we serve children of our fallen military and first responders in all 50 states and U.S. Territories.
Our mission is to help children of our fallen military and first responders develop into strong and successful adults by providing them positive mentoring and developmental activities when they are at their most crucial developmental phase of life.
Our vision is to walk alongside the children of our fallen when they need it most, while they are developing, regardless of the cause of their parent's death. Many children fail to qualify for benefits, and fall through the cracks because of their parent's cause of death or unit of assignment. Each child suffers regardless if mom or dad died in a combat zone, training accident, on the job illness, or from suicide as a result of the stress of their jobs. From the child's perspective, the impact is the same, mom or dad is no longer there. No one can ever replace their lost parent, but we can be there for them.
Rainbows
Rainbows is an international organization that offers training and suggestions for creating peer support groups within religious organizations, schools, and social organizations. Rainbows focus’ on grief within the family unit, especially that which may arise from the death of a loved one.
Tuesday's Children
Life-changing moments are happening in Tuesday’s children’s youth mentoring program for military families of Fallen Soldiers. We pair caring adults with children ages 6-18 who have lost a loved one who served in the U.S. military post-9/11. Using our long-term healing model, these mentee-mentor matches become lasting, meaningful friendships.
Wear Blue: Run to Remember
Gold Star Youth Mentorship Program - Each spring, wear blue: run to remember hosts a ten-week run-focused mentorship program for children who have lost a parent in military service.
Pending the guidance of local health authorities, youth and mentors will meet Saturday mornings to train for a 5K. Youth and mentors will set and work toward S.M.A.R.T. goals, learn about a life of service, and develop a friendship.
Other
Got Your Back Network
The Got Your Back Network connects with military families who have lost a spouse or parent while serving our country. Our goal is to give comfort, answer a special need, offer guidance and bring a brighter day.
Support for programs for surviving spouses and children
Sugar Bear Foundation
The Sugar Bear Foundation seeks to honor and remember the legacy of Mario "Sugar Bear" Carazo by supporting surviving spouses and children. The Sugar Bear Foundation is a non-profit that raises funds for existing programs that support surviving spouses and their children.
VFW National Home for Children
VFW National Home for Children
The VFW National Home for Children will provide children and families of members of the VFW, its Ladies Auxiliary and active-duty military opportunities for growth and development in a nurturing community, and by doing so, will serve as a living memorial to all veterans.
Welcome to the online home of the most unique community in the United States of America - the VFW National Home for Children! The National Home is a multi-faceted facility created to care for the developmental, social and spiritual needs of the children and families of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Services are also available for children of active duty military personnel. Our facility is not an orphanage, but a neighborhood of custom homes, service buildings and recreational land administered by a highly devoted staff and fully integrated into its surrounding community.
Copyright 2008 - 2022 Benita Koeman, Operation We Are Here. All rights reserved.
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