Volunteers stuff Hero Packs to help children cope

~ Program aims to help kids deal with parents' deployments

SIKESTON -- When military personnel are deployed, their entire family is impacted, especially the children of those service men and women.

To help relieve some of the emotions that come with the situation, the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 114 of Sikeston for the past several years has offered free backpacks for local children of active military personnel.

"It's a good program, and it helps a lot of the children," said Tammey Cummins, chaplain and Junior Auxiliary chairman in Sikeston.

The program, created through the national organization Operation: Military Kids, offers Hero Packs to children in prekindergarten through third grade. The bags are filled with a variety of items given to military youth as a thank you for the sacrifices they make while their parents are deployed.

Missouri American Legion partnered with Operation: Military Kids to offer the program several years ago. In its first year, about 150 backpacks were distributed to military children statewide. Today nearly 700 backpacks are distributed throughout Missouri. And since 2004 Hero Packs have been presented to over 47,000 military youth nationwide.

This year about 150 backpacks were filled for Missouri Department of American Legion's District 14 alone, which includes posts in Sikeston, New Madrid, Benton, Dexter, Charleston, Chaffee, Caruthersville, Poplar Bluff and Cape Girardeau.

Junior Auxiliary members, who are up to 18 years old, fill the backpacks with the school supplies each July during the Legion's state convention, and then the backpacks are distributed to children living in the district, Cummins said.

"The Junior Auxiliary members write letters to the children and put them in the backpacks which are filled with notebooks, pencils, crayons, a book, ruler, colored pencils and a stuffed animal," Cummins said.

The children can choose whether or not to become pen pals with the Junior Auxiliary member who wrote them, Cummins said.

"This is some way to give the children someone to talk to. They've never had a chance to vent, and it seems to open them up as they talk to their pen pal. ... The stress does get to them," Cummins said about military children.

Cummins first became involved with the project about seven years ago after attending a conference where she heard about the program from Emma Campbell of Edwards who acts as a liaison between Operation: Military Kids and American Legion Auxiliary. She's been involved with the program for 14 years.

"Everybody really appreciates them," Campbell said about the children who receive the backpacks. "Our only fallback is that schools can't tell if they have any military children (which makes it harder to find children who are eligible to receive the backpacks.) It's not that we want to pry into anyone's life, we just want to help."

Cummins agreed, that's a problem the local unit faces here.

"We hit a brick wall (in trying to find military children)," Cummins said.

Only a handful of backpacks for area children remain so anyone who knows a military child who hasn't yet received the backpack should contact the Legion in Sikeston, Cummins said.

Operation: Military Kids is the U.S. Army's collaborative effort with America's communities to support children and youth impacted by deployment. Missouri's branch of the national organization works to provide support and activities to help ease the pressures for these children. State partners also work together to provide support and opportunities for military families, especially their children.

In addition to American Legion, Operation: Military Kids is supported by many Missouri programs including Missouri 4-H, Missouri National Guard, Army/Air Force Reserve, Military reserve, Whiteman Air Force Base, Fort Leonard Wood, University of Missouri Extension, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and others.

Vickie Wilson, treasurer and veterans affairs and rehabilitation chair for the Sikeston Auxiliary unit, said it does make her happy to know they're helping children

Wilson said: "That's what we're here for -- to help the veterans and their families."

Items and monetary donations to help with the program are always accepted, Cummins said. For more information, contact the Legion in Sikeston at (573) 471-9956.