Sesame Helps Military Kids
By Tina Benitez -- Gifts and Dec, 5/3/2006 12:45:00 PM
New York — To say goodbye to a child isn’t easy, especially if that girl or boy is the child of a soldier — man or woman — currently serving on active duty in the military. There are lots of those parents; more than 43 percent of the military on active duty have kids, according to U.S. Department of Defense figures. And unfortunately, more than 1,200 of those children have lost a parent in Iraq or Afghanistan.
In response to the growing need for product to help children cope with parents in the military, Sesame Workshop is launching Talk, Listen, Connect: Helping Families Cope with Military Deployment. The program features an activities kit designed for children ages 3–5, who are coping with a parent who is currently, or will be deployed overseas. Each kit provides activities for welcoming a parent home with a party and ways to keep track of the time parents are away from home, as well as ways to maintain communication while separated.
Beginning this summer, the kits will be available at no cost to schools, childcare programs, family support centers and other organizations serving the needs of military families.
Sesame is also working to make the kits available to retail outlets that have a need for more military family-oriented product. Additionally, Sesame wants to find a way to keep the kit free-of-charge, and create in-store programs for retailers.
"We’re looking to make this as accessible and available as possible,” notes Jeanette Betancourt, vice president of content design for the education, research and outreach department of Sesame Workshop. “We want this available for daily life.”
The program was developed with a $1 million donation from Wal-Mart Stores, as well as additional support from the New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH) and the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC). The initial launch of 138,000 bilingual, multiple-media outreach kits with DVDs will be distributed to children of members of the United States Armed Services, National Guard and Reserves.
--Tina Benitez is senior editor of Playthings magazine, a sister publication of Gifts & Decorative Accessories.
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