 |
|
|
|||||
|
|
December 2, 2004 4-H Hero Pack Project Shows Support for Military Families Katie Geske knows what having a family member in the military is like. Her brother is in the National Guard and her father used to be a member. Her brother hasn’t been called to active duty. Her father wasn’t, either, but his Guard duties made him miss her birthdays and other special events. The high school senior from Woodworth, N.D., said that’s why she took part in a statewide 4-H Hero Pack project to show support for the families of people in the North Dakota National Guard, Reserve and other military service. 4-H members from Barnes, Emmons, McLean, Mountrail, Ramsey, Sargent, Stutsman, Walsh and Ward counties assembled or plan to put together a total of 200 packs for children with a parent who has been deployed on active duty. Hero packs contain items that will help the children stay connected to their deployed parent. “I think it is a way to thank those kids for sharing their father or their mother,” said Geske, a member of the Woodworth Golden Eagles 4-H club. The packs consist of a disposable camera; Freedom, the 4-H liberty bear, which is sporting a red, white and blue hat; a small stuffed animal; a 4-H photo album; and several other 4-H items, such as a yo-yo, cup, piggy bank, Frisbee and bandana, in a black backpack with the 4-H’s distinctive green clover emblem. 4-H officials will add envelopes and a tablet of stationery with the 4-H emblem, a silhouette of the U.S. flag and the outline of the state before the packs are distributed. Each pack also contains a letter from a 4-H member thanking the recipient for the sacrifices he or she is making. Some 4-H members added information about themselves, their 4-H club’s name and some of their activities and experiences in 4-H. “If not for families such as yours, we would not enjoy all the freedoms we have in our country,” wrote Jason Berg, a member of Country Kids, a Ramsey County 4-H club. Gail Slinde, a county Extension Service agent who works with 4-H programs in Ward County, likes the concept of a project aimed at the families of people in the military. “You hear a lot about the troops, but the family that is left behind has a lot of struggles, too,” she said. Krista Littlefield, an Extension agent in Mountrail County, thinks the project also helps the 4-H members understand what those families are experiencing. “It kind of makes a connection for the 4-H clubs to the troops overseas,” she said. 4-H members’ response to the project was overwhelming, according to Brenda Langerud, an Extension agent in Ramsey County. Fourteen youths from five clubs in the county prepared 20 packs. “We easily could have done twice that number of backpacks,” she said. Hero Pack is part of a nationwide 4-H effort to show support for military families, said Brad Cogdill, an Extension agent for Cass County and the state’s 4-H military projects liaison. He is working with Linda Vig of the North Dakota National Guard to coordinate the packs’ distribution later this month through military family support centers across the state. ### Source: Brad
Cogdill, (701) 241- 5700, bcogdill@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Click here for a higher resolution photo. (213Kb jpg) |
Market Advisor: |
|
North Dakota State University |
