When my father, Odysseus, and his men sailed off to the Trojan War, they were confident their gods favored a quick victory. Instead, the siege of Troy lasted ten years. After Troy fell, the survivors made their way home to Sparta, Mycenae, Pylos, and elsewhere in the ancient Peloponnese. Neither my father nor any of his troops arrived home with the rest. We waited for years as the news grew worse. Odysseus was dead, we were told,or imprisoned, or, worst yet, he had married another woman and abandoned my mother Penelope, my brother Telemachus, and me.


If he is alive somewhere, his thoughts may wander to Penelope and Telemachus, but he won’t be thinking of me. I am the daughter he doesn’t know exists. Odysseus went off to the Trojan War when his son, Telemachus, was barely old enough to walk. His wife, Penelope, was a teenage bride, and is now a young wife, mother, and queen who has to try to rule Ithaca without him.


I was born seven months after he left. I am a hero’s daughter and a princess of his realm, but I have lived my entire life without a father. I’m nineteen now, and still waiting.


All over the world, and throughout history children grow up as I have. This website will focus on the children of those men and women who have gone off to fight America's wars, and provide information and resources for all who care about military families and want to help.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Operation Kid Comfort


Operation Kid Comfort creates custom-made quilts for children of deployed military personnel who experience grief from missing their mom or dad.
Created in 2004 at Ft. Bragg/Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, N.C., ASYMCA’s Operation Kid Comfort is designed to help relieve the emotional stress that children of deployed military personnel suffer during a parent’s absence from home.  providing free quilts for children ages 6 and under and pillows for children ages 7 and older. To date, the program has made nearly 6,000 quilts for children of deployed parents.
Greater DC Cares, the leading and largest coordinator of volunteerism in the region, chose Operation Kid Comfort as the flagship service event for its 9/11 National Day of Service events. As the banner event, more than 200 volunteers created dozens of quilts for children all over the country.

According to the ASYMCA website, "volunteers collect photographs from military families to make “photo-transfer” quilts that feature images of the deployed family member. With the help of local quilting artists, volunteers are taught the basic steps of quilt making, how to crop and scan pictures, preparation of the fabric, and use of equipment. Once the quilt is complete, it is given to the child to play with, sleep with, or use to comfort them from the grief of missing their mom or dad."

Click here for more information, to request a quilt or to volunteer.
Posted by About AART at 7:46 AM

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