Friday, June 29, 2007

Bringing Families Together

Camp Pendelton, CA

Last week Team BBTO was at Camp Pendelton outside of San Diego at the National Military Family Association's Operation Purple Camp www.nmfa.org for children of wounded armed services personal. In was an incredibly emotional day for all of us as we saw families reconnecting after experiencing the difficulty of long deployments and then the stress of rentry and dealing with both the physical and mental wounds of war. During the week the campers participated in a variety of activities ranging from beachcombing to a giant mudwrrstling pit and taking batting practice at a San Diego Padre beseball game. The children all had smiles on their faces as they got off buses from the week and you could tell that they had made friends who are dealing with the same stress and that they had forged a strong emotional bond.

Operation Purple Camps are helping our nation's youngest heroes get the outdoor opportunities they deserve. The National Military Family Association honored the Sierra Club on June 14th in Washington DC with its annual Dr. Lowell G Daun Award for our significant contribution s to the development of NMFA and helping improve the quality of life of uniformed service families. The Sierra Club is proud to recive this honor but we see our role as more then a financial supporter as we want to help our brave armed services personal have the outdoor opportunities to help combat the effects of deployment and the stress it puts on families. A multitude of stories has run on the great work Operation Purple Camps are providing

USA Today: June 21, 2007At camp, military kids bear scars of their own
The Today Show: June 21, 2007A haven for military kids

A great personal story on a family ran last week as well
The Capital: June 26, 2007Around Crofton: One family's story of the sacrifices to keep America safe

The Leave No Child Inside movement keeps growing as I was interviewd on CBS Evening News last week http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2972606n

The Chicago Tribune wrote an OP-ED on the need to get children outside.http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0625edit3jun25,1,6123756.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true


Sacramento News and Review: June 14, 2007No child left inside
Amit Rana, BBTO's California Rep wrote a great OP-ED in the Sacramento News and Review Last Week

Have a great 4th of July and spend it outside!