A five-year member of the Dahlgren Naval Base Youth Activity Center, Rachel Archulet has been selected as the 2016-2017 Virginia State Military Youth of the Year.

Rachel is both an extremely driven Club member and student. In addition to her dedication to her Club, she also served as the National Junior Honor Society Present, Student Body President, Junior Student to Student President, and the Present of the Dahlgren Youth Activity Center Teen Program.

While maintaining a 4.0 GPA, Rachel is the founder of the Summer Intensive Dance Program and the Start Smart Program at her Club. She has had the honor of teaching several dance classes, choreograph recitals, and start her own clubs through the Youth Activity Center. Rachel is part of a local competitive dance team where she trains over 11 hours per week. At her last competition, Rachel competed her first solo and won a scholarship to compete at a national level.

Along with dance, Rachel has a passion for both academics and service. As a freshman, she has completed three years of online language courses. Her love for academics continues to shine as she was awarded the President’s Award for Academic Excellence. Rachel believes in service before self and her driving ambition is to make a positive impact on society and to be the difference in our youth. She has volunteered over 175 hours over the past year throughout her club, different military instillations, and the surrounding community. Rachel was also awarded the President’s Volunteer Service Award for her continual service throughout her state.

As a rising sophomore in high school, she plans on graduating a year early and attending Colorado College while majoring in dance and minoring in business administration. Rachel will continue to help others reach their full potential in life while holding firm to the life lessons she has learned from the Boys and Girls Club.

Since 2014 KBP Foods has sold coupon books to their KFC and Taco Bell restaurant customers in Virginia in exchange for a $1 donation to Our Military Kids. The first coupon book drive resulted in 35,000 donations from restaurant customers. Each drive has seen an increase in donations and last fall’s drive received nearly 80,000 donations.  The KBP Foods stores in Houston, Texas joined the Virginia stores for the Spring 2016 Campaign and together they surpassed the 100,000 mark in coupon book distribution.

In a remarkable effort, Deborah Alexander, KFC General Manager in Newport News, Virginia, sold more than 12,000 books to benefit our grant program.  KBP Foods management and staff presented a $103,532.42 check to Our Military Kids, representing the largest single donation to Our Military Kids so far in 2016.

“We are immensely grateful for the extraordinary effort KBP Foods employees put into the coupon drive,” said Linda Davidson, Executive Director. “Grant applications to Our Military Kids have increased by more than 30% in the first half of this year.  Their tremendous outpouring of support could not have come at a better time.”

“It’s been great that KBP’s relationship with Our Military Kids continues to grow as our company grows,” said Matthew Hansen, Chief Operating Officer for KBP Foods. “We love what OMK does and are privileged to support their efforts and are passionate about doing so.”

“The letters from all the children who are getting to pursue their dreams and passions, while they make the biggest sacrifice of all, is what keeps us going – they are the little heroes! Our hope is that KBP and OMK both continue to grow together and are able to impact more children year after year,” Hansen concluded.

Since 2005, Our Military Kids has provided more than 54,000 grant awards to keep military children engaged in activities of their choosing while parents are deployed or recovering from combat related injuries.

Monthly Snapshot

July 2016

 

Every year it seems as though summer is over as quickly as it begins. No sooner are we making beach plans and packing for summer camp and we begin to plan for the upcoming school year. The nights begin to become slightly cooler and the stores become inundated with back to school sales and shoppers anxious to take advantage of tax free weekends. Some children cannot wait for the school year to begin; others dread it. Their parents often vacillate between the two.

 

Whatever the season, life with children is busy and full- life with multiple children even more so. Parents often relay that they feel like chauffeurs, transporting children from activity to activity, practice to practice, recital to recital. This is especially true in the summer when children have 10 weeks of days to fill and parents are often working, making child care difficult and expensive. It takes an exorbitant amount of time, energy, money (and gas!) to keep up with a child’s activities and it can be a real challenge for parents to find the time, energy, money (and gas!) to make it all work. But somehow they do. The question becomes, how and why do they do it? Quite simply, they believe it is worth it.

 

Getting kids involved in activities exposes them to opportunities to learn, grow, develop positive relationships and express themselves physically, emotionally and creatively. In most cases, the activity itself is incidental. The true benefits come from the structure of the activity which teaches children about commitment. The newness encourages vulnerability and positive risk-taking. The growth in skills and knowledge increases self-esteem and self-efficacy. The relationships with positive adults and peers encourage healthy relationship development with others. All of these benefits (and others) are in addition to the physical and/or academic skills learned through the activity itself.

Parents know all this. It’s what helps them wake up in the morning when their daughter needs to be at the rink before the sun is up. It’s what gets them to the concert later in the evening when the baby is fussy and the dinner is burnt. It’s what inspires them to continue to sacrifice for the sake of their children, a sacrifice most children will not understand but one from which they will benefit for the rest of their lives.

Please continue to help us support these families as they do all they can to provide the best opportunities for their children. The reality is money plays an important role in children’s ability to participate in activities and the financial support of Our Military Kids is necessary to continue to make these opportunities possible.

Thank you for your continued investment in the future of our military children.