By Judy McSpadden
Some of the recipients of Our Military Kids grants are adding their special kind of cheer to mailboxes around the country this Christmas. The cards are on sale at www.goodcausegreetings.com\omk.asp.
Jacob B, whose dad deployed with the Naval Reserve to the Horn of Africa, used his OMK grant to attend a STEM camp. Jacob, age 11, has designed an OMK Christmas card featuring a well-spangled Christmas tree standing at the center of – what else would you expect from a patriot – an American flag.
Matthew E, son of an Army National Guardsmen, received an Our Military Kids grant for his Boy Scout Camp. His artwork features a host of holiday favorites: a snowman, a tree, a Hanukkah menorah, and, of course…an American flag.
The cards are for sale thanks to a partnership between Our Military Kids, Inc. and Good Cause Greetings, a Massachusetts card maker whose family interest in holiday greetings goes back five generations.
“Every card we sell supports a charity,” said Cathy Robbins, president of Good Cause Greetings. Our Military Kids will receive 20 percent of the proceeds.
The card maker supports only those charities which spend the majority of their budgets on their missions. Robbins said the organizations they support have wide-ranging missions, but they are all well-respected and given the seal of approval by BBB Wise Giving Alliance.
“We like printing cards about things people care about,” said Robbins, who listed food banks, hospitals and animal shelters. She also mentioned more obscure causes, like diseases not familiar to the general populace.
The designs of the holiday cards vary as well. “Of course, living in New England, I’m partial to snow scenes,” Robbins said. Either Good Cause or the customer can provide artwork.
“Print technology makes it easier to customize,” Robbins said. She said the customers purchasing the Our Military Kids cards can choose their own logos, signatures, verses, even fonts. Shipping from Massachusetts generally takes 2-3 days unless the cards are customized, in which case shipping could be four days, depending on where the customer lives.
Evolving technology has also changed the way people exchange greeting cards. There is evidence that ancient people in China and Egypt shared greetings on papyrus. Europeans, in the 15th century, shared greetings on paper. Then, in 1843, the first 
known Christmas card was published in London.
While, today, an increasing number of people send E-cards at Christmas, over 2 billion Christmas cards were mailed in the United States last year. Even though electronic communication is inexpensive and on the rise, “it is not charming,” blogs Dallas Morning News writer, David Flick.
Flick likes the traditional Christmas card custom, suggesting, “the minute or so it takes to sign and address a card is time spent thinking of someone else.”
Customers who order Our Military Kids cards can not only enjoy a beloved custom going back centuries, but they can know, for $14.20 per box, they are supporting military children of deployed or wounded military service men and women.
To order, go to the interactive site: www.goodcausegreetings.com\omk.asp
By Judy McSpadden
There’s no doubt about it – military deployments cause stress for kids.
Plenty of research conducted on military operations since 9/11 backs up that statement. A military member goes to a hazardous zone, leaving a caregiver and other 
family members at home to face new and unsettling routines. Consider the news footage of children, among many over the past decade, who are waving good-bye to dads and moms wearing camouflage and are filing alongside other soldiers through the airport gate. What follows for the children are nights of worry and days peppered with adult problems.
So what is the answer? How can parents and others alleviate the stress on the children?
One effective remedy for child stress is activity – what one dictionary defines as a pursuit, hobby, diversion, or recreation. In other words, “getting busy” can shift a child’s attention from painful rumination over a parent’s absence to learning cartwheels or sharing a game of soccer. Our Military Kids, whose grants pay for sports, arts, and tutoring activities, runs periodic surveys of its grant recipient families. Results show that 98 percent of parents believe activities have reduced their children’s stress symptoms. Not only that, but children’s activities drew participation by other members of the family – dads joined the gym too, or mom made new mom friends. The result was an improved sense of well-being for the whole family.
The “activity remedy” isn’t just for military kids. Notable adult stress factors, like divorce, moves, work or school insecurity and illness, can affect kids of all walks of life. Their grades may plummet; they may withdraw. But parents and teachers often see negative behavior or attitudes change when kids get into a sport, a club, or hobby.
In his 2011 report on the positive effects of extracurricular activities, scholar Evan Masson purports activities improve a host of problems — bad behavior, low grades, and dropout rates — while also helping kids learn adult lessons, like teamwork, time management, and social skills.
Of course, parents can run the risk of overscheduling their kids. Dr. Michele Borba, author of the book, Unselfie, suggests there are times parents need to “hit the pause button.” Loading a child down with too many activities may add stress rather than alleviate it, especially if performance requirements (or school grades) are involved. Psychologist Reid Wilson and psychotherapist Lynn Lyons, authors of the book, Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents, advocate the importance of play, “play that isn’t pressured.”
Yes, the evidence is convincing. So here’s the next question: which activities are best for our kids?
Last year the Pew Research Center surveyed parents of school-aged children about preferred after-school activities. Sports was by far the most popular activity for 73 percent of their respondents. Sixty percent of the activities were religious, and just over half of the activities involved music, dance and the arts. Fewer activities included volunteer work and tutoring. Thirty-six percent of parents reported that their teenagers had part-time jobs in the year prior to the survey.
According to a recent survey by Our Military Kids, since January of this year, sports programs have taken top billing; over half of Our Military Kids recipients took gymnastics, baseball or other programs. The next highest categories were arts, then camps, then tutoring.
Whatever the activity, the important thing is to get the child involved in something positive, compelling…or just plain fun.
By Judy McSpadden
As the nation celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month, 9-year-old Damian Montanez, a self-described “Texi-Rican,” is taking turns at bat in “America’s game,” thanks to an Our Military Kids grant for children of wounded warriors.
Damian’s dad, SSG Francisco Montanez, having served in the Army Infantry for 11 years, suffers from a TBI, PTSD, and a host of other maladies caused by multiple blasts in various war zones, including an IED that hit his vehicle in December 2006.
“It hasn’t been easy for the family,” said Damian’s mom, Carmen Figueroa, about her husband’s situation. But she says baseball has made a huge difference for her son.
Damian knew he wanted to play ball as early as age 4. That was after he returned from two years in Puerto Rico, where he, his mother and sister stayed while his dad served on one of many deployments.
“It was very different in Puerto Rico,” said Carmen. Although she and her husband both grew up there, she wanted to be sure Damian felt comfortable — her family spoke only Spanish. Damian came to love the beach, the food, and being with his grandparents.
The only time Carmen had been to the States before moving to Ft. Bragg, NC, Francisco’s first assignment, was a week at Disney World. Today, she gets homesick if she leaves her adopted homeland for very long.
Carmen’s experience is shared by thousands of other migrant and immigrant members of the military. About 17 percent of American
forces are of Hispanic or Latino origin. A 2012 study reports 10,000 active duty military are from Puerto Rico.
As for baseball, hundreds of major league baseball players come from Puerto Rico, to include greats like Roberto Clemente and Bernie Williams. Perhaps Damian will be one of them some day.
Meanwhile, Damian will keep practicing. His dad, working toward recovery, has signed up for college courses at a local Texas community college.
Carmen says of her connection to the military, “I am 100 percent proud. The Army has never left us behind. I get emotional when I think about how my husband fought, and he did it with pride and with no regrets.”