Saturday, January 27, 2007

OpKid Moments from Around the World

What a delight it is to see Operation Kid Comfort growing from the community of Fort Bragg across America. It is a success for all of us, the many volunteers and ASYMCA staff who knew that Operation Kid Comfort would create comfort for so many children of deployed service men and women, when we say: Operation Kid Comfort is serving military families from Fort Drum to San Diego Naval Base, and now on to US Military families in Germany. The pictures and information below are shining examples of how caring people can create comfort for children in their communities.

Carmen of the Fort Drum U.S. Army Base, New York ASYMCA writes:
In December at the Fort Drum annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony we presented our first twelve quilts to seven families. Each family was very pleased with their quilts and we received ten more request that night. To date we are serving 34 families and by the end of next week thirty-two quilts will have been received.

Operation Kid Comfort is already making a difference in our Fort Drum community. I spoke with one of the mothers yesterday and she told me that her daughter has kept the quilt close ever since she first received it, and that it was a task to convince her to leave it home from school.

The quilt shop Material Rewards Dansville, NY has been one of the driving forces to make our program possible by completing seventeen quilts in a little more that a week and a half and donating all of the supplies. I am now working with a Quilt guild in Auburn, NY that want to make another 60 quilts.

The greatest reward of all has been the smile on the faces of the families that received the quilts.


When Shannon Friend-Begin of the U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern’s Kleber Library saw an article about Operation Kid Comfort in the Norwich University Alumnae publication The Norwich Record, she made it her mission to further serve the children of military families, and found the resources to establish Operation Kid Comfort for her community. Below are images taken by Christine June, USAGK Reporter, to report this milestone in OpKid history.

Lynn Pride, U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern's Kleber Library manager, proves that any space can be used to create an Operation Kid Comfort quilt as she finishes up the last touches on an Operation Kid Comfort quilt Jan. 5 for a deployed Soldier’s daughter at the garrison’s library on Kleber Kaserne in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Regina Tiedemann, U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern Child and Youth Services Health specialist, congratulates her daughter, Shannon, for being the first child in Europe to receive an Operation Kid Comfort quilt Jan. 8 at the garrison’s library on Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

Shannon Tiedemann, explains to Lynn Pride, the nine photos on the Operation Kid Comfort quilt Jan. 8 at the garrison’s library on Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Pride worked on the quilt for more than 12 hours, and Shannon is the first child in Europe to receive an Operation Kid Comfort quilt.