April 9, 2014
Greetings!

Greetings!

If this is the first edition of the Marine Parents newsletter you have received, WELCOME! If you are a returning reader we are glad you have joined us and are thankful for your support.

The week of April 6-12 is 2014's National Volunteer Week. Our first piece thanks our amazing volunteers for all that they do and without whom none of what Marine Parents does would be possible.

May is military appreciation month, and to honor the men and women who are currently deployed to Afghanistan, we're launching a new campaign to include made-in-the-USA American Flags in our packages at our April 26 Care Package Project pack day. Learn more in our second article.

Spots in the 2014 Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) sold out almost immediately when registration opened last month. If you were unable to secure a spot but are interested in running the 2014 MCM as a member of Team Marine Parents, we have 39 bibs available. Learn more in our third piece.

Having a loved one in the Marine Corps can be challenging. Having a support group to fall back on is a great resource to have when the going gets tough. Learn more about how you can meet and connect with other Marine family members and supporters in our fourth piece.

Blue Star Mothers of Northern Virginia recently sponsored a dinner for our Purple Heart Hero Support-East program. Read more and learn how you can sponsor your own event in our fifth piece.

On Saturday, April 26, the Waterford Township War Memorial Committee is holding a 5K Freedom Run/Walk in Atco, New Jersey in honor of two fallen heroes, David Tapper and Jon Hicks. Learn more in our sixth and final piece.

God bless and Semper Fi!

 

Web Signature

 

 

 

Tracy Della Vecchia

Founder and Executive Director
MarineParents.com, Inc.
Thank You Volunteers!
Marine Parents Celebrates National Volunteer Week

Marine Parents was built on volunteer hours, time, dedication and support. Our mission is two-fold: provide support to Marines, military personnel, and their families and give people in communities across our great nation opportunities to support the troops. In eleven years of service, part two of our mission, with volunteers representing nearly every state, has logged more than 200,000 volunteer hours.

 

April 6-12, 2014 is National Volunteer Week. We want to take this time to thank each and every volunteer who works for MarineParents.com for their dedication to our military and their families. Their service for our great nation is paramount to the success of our troops both stateside and abroad, and to the emotional well-being of their family members at home. I know those of you reading understand very well how important our volunteers' work is.    

 

To each of our volunteers, thank you for your work and dedication to the organization, our military and their families. And congratulations for a job well-done!

 

God Bless and Semper Fi,

 

Web Signature

Tracy Della Vecchia
Founder and Executive Director
Military Appreciation Month 500 Flags Campaign
Provide a Marine With a Memory That Will Last a Lifetime!

 

It's known by many names--The Stars and Stripes. The Star Spangled Banner. Old Glory.

 

It symbolizes many ideals we hold dear--Democracy. Liberty. Freedom.

It's been there for some of the defining moments in American history--In 1814 when the sight of it flying over Fort McHenry inspired Francis Scott Key to write our national anthem. In 1945 when five Marines and a Navy corpsman raised it on Mt. Suribachi and gave hope to a nation. On 9/11 when three members of the New York Fire Department raised it in the rubble of the World Trade Center and showed the world that while it may bend, America never breaks.

 

It's the American flag, and while the way it looks and the number of states it represents may have changed over the years, the fact that, for as long as we've been a country, men and women have been willing to put their lives on the line, fighting and dying to protect it and all that it stands for, has not.

 

Since 2001, that has meant sending hundreds of thousands of service members, many of them barely out of high school, to Iraq and Afghanistan. In the almost 13 years since the first American troops entered the country, thousands of troops have lost their lives. Thousands more have lost brothers in arms, body parts, their innocence, or some combination thereof. Thousands of parents, brothers, sister, husbands, wives, and children have had their worlds shattered and lives turned upside down.  

 

It appears that's about to change.

Unless something drastic happens, by the end of 2014 all American troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan, and the longest military conflict in our country's history will finally come to an end.

To commemorate this historic moment, we'd like to offer Marine supporters the opportunity to purchase an American flag to send to Afghanistan at our April 26 Care Package Project pack day in honor of Military Appreciation Month in May.

The idea is simple-we pack and ship 500 American flags to 500 deployed Marines on our next pack day so those Marines are able to fly their flag over their last base in Afghanistan before this tour of duty ends.

 

However, to make this happen, we need your help. Each flag is $30 (although that does cover the cost of the flag and the shipping fee to send it to Afghanistan), so to provide 500 flags for 500 Marines, we need the Marine Parents family to come together to raise $15,000 by Friday, April 25.  

 

By purchasing a flag, not only are you providing a Marine with a piece of history, you're also providing a potential heirloom to pass down for generations, something each Marine will be able tell his or her children and grandchildren about.  

 

Don't miss your chance to be a part of this historic moment, provide a Marine with a memory that will last a lifetime! Order a flag today!

 

Click here to purchase a flag today! 

Want to Run the Marine Corps Marathon? We Have Bibs!
Sign Up Now to Secure Your Spot!

The Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) is one of the most popular marathons in the world. Each year, the competition to secure a spot in the race increases, and more and more people miss out on their chance to run in "The People's Marathon."

Due to the speed in which the race sold out, you may have missed out on your chance to sign up for the marathon. Should that be the case, don't fear, Marine Parents can help.  

 

As a 2014 Marine Corps Marathon Charity Partner, Marine Parents has a limited number of additional bibs available for those who wish to sign up for Team Marine Parents.  Should you choose to join Team Marine Parents, in addition to the standard $110 entry fee, we require that you pledge to raise $500 in charitable donations for MarineParents.com, Inc.™ and its outreach programs.

 

We currently have 39 bibs available. Don't miss your chance to sign up today!   

 

To learn more, or to sign up now, please click here...
Marine Family Network Has a Live Chat
Find Your Place to Connect and Share!

Having a loved one in the Marine Corps can be a challenging experience. From highs--such as pride, admiration, and a sense of belonging--to lows--such as anxiety, fear, and loneliness--each day, and sometimes each hour, brings with it a unique set of emotions that your "civilian" friends just do not and cannot relate to.

  

One way to cope with this roller coaster of emotions is to find a place where you can talk to other people who understand how you feel and what you are going through.

Marine Family Network's (MFN) live chat room is just such a place. 

 

MFN's live chat allows you to chat, in real time, with other Marine family members, friends, and supporters from around the country. Through good times and bad, the people you meet on MFN will be there to provide you with support, understanding, compassion, and a friendly ear. "I'm no less frightened, but a lot less alone" is a sentiment shared by many MFN users.  

 

So remember, you are not alone. MFN is like your front porch to come and sit with a warm blanket to talk with your Marine family: a Place to Connect & Share®.   

 

Click here to join MFN today! 

Blue Star Mothers Purple Heart Hero Support Dinner
Sponsor Your Own Event Today!

Here at Marine Parents, our mission is two-fold: Not only do we strive to give back to the troops, but we also attempt to provide the community with an opportunity to give back as well.

Blue Star Mothers of Northern Virginia recently chose to take advantage of the second part of our mission--providing the community with an opportunity to give back as well--by donating $750 to sponsor a dinner for our Purple Heart Hero Support-East program.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Blue Star Mothers of Northern Virginia for their generosity and to inform our readers that any individual, group, or organization that is interested in sponsoring a dinner may do so. Sponsoring a dinner is a great way to show your support for our wounded heroes and to let them know that you appreciate the sacrifices they've made protecting our freedom around the world.  

 

To learn how you can sponsor an event, please click here... 

Tapper-Hicks 5K Freedom Run/Walk
Remembering Our Fallen Heroes

Jon Hicks (left) and
David Tapper (right)
 

David Tapper, a 13-year Navy SEAL veteran, was in Afghanistan conducting operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom when he died on August 20, 2003. Jon Hicks, an infantry assaultman with the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, was deployed to Ashraf, Iraq in Anbar Providence when died on September 10, 2007.

 

To honor and remember these two brave men, the Waterford Township War Memorial Committee is holding a 5K Freedom Run/Walk on April 26 at American Legion post 311 in Atco, New Jersey. Money raised at the event will be used for their respective scholarship funds as well as for The Waterford Township War Memorial Committee.   

 

For more information, or to register for the 5K, please click here... 

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We hope this week's edition of our email newsletter has been useful for you and your family. If there are topics you would like us to address, or if you have other suggestions for the newsletter, please contact us.  


Banner Photo--

Tifnit, Agadir, Morocco - A member of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces (FAR) is the assistant gunner for U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Carlos E. Medina, military policeman, 2nd Law Enforcement Battalion, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, II Marine Expeditionary Force firing a M240B machine gun during a live fire training exercise as part of exercise African Lion 2014 on Tifnit FAR Base in Agadir, Morocco, Mar. 29, 2014. African Lion is conducted as a combined joint exercise between the Kingdom of Morocco and the U.S. Forces to strengthen relationships and military operability in the region. (U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Cpl. Alexandria Blanche, 2D MARDIV COMCAM/Released)  

 

 

MarineParents.com, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) public charity. MarineParents.com, Inc., was founded in January 2003 in response to parents' needs to find information and to have a place to connect and share® with one another during their Marine's career. Our free online services and connections have expanded to support and educate Marine moms and dads, spouses, families and friends. We've more than 400,000 Marine and recruit families during boot camp, training, active duty and deployments. We've shipped more than 38,000 care packages overseas to our Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, sent 87,000 prayers and letters to injured Marines and served thousands of meals to wounded heroes and their families on the East and West coasts. You've found a place to connect and share.®


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