Katie Glenn, daughter of U.S. Army Col. Harry C. Glenn, chief of staff of the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq, has created a cool way for kids of deployed military personnel to express their feelings about their parent being away or the loss of a parent in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Katie is a senior at American University in Washington, D.C. and came up with the idea to start a blog after she took a new media course. "I read a lot of articles on how political campaigns, charities and social activism organizations were learning to use new forms of media like Twitter, Facebook, texting and blogs to get the message out."
A non-profit organization, Families United, helped Katie to create the website, www.militarykidsblog.com. She worked as a Military Family Fellow during an internship program earlier this year. She thought her idea for a website was something they would be interested in supporting. "I learned a lot about how Families United helped military families to get their voices heard." Kids can go onto the site and put their feelings into words. They can link up with other kids who might be going through similar emotions. "I love it so far. I have been reading the different posts that have been going up. I can identify with a lot of it. Sometimes it feels safer to talk to someone you can't see or you feel better when you write it down," says Katie. Her father is currently deployed and she's also away from home in college, so that introduced another situation in which Katie felt the blog helped her express her feelings. Col. Glenn has served 24 years in the U. S. Army and has been deployed several times, including Afghanistan and is now in Baghdad, Iraq. "I believe any time people can discuss issues with those who are in like circumstances is a good thing. If it just allows them to relieve a little stress, it is worth it," remarked Col. Glenn.
When asked what she hopes the blog will do for kids, Katie responded, "I mostly hope that military kids realize that this life is something they share with a relatively small group of the American population; this [military kids blog] is a whole group of kids that know just how they feel." Katie is hopeful that the blog will someday expand into something much bigger--hosting pictures, contact information, etc., sort of like a Facebook for military kids. She's also foreseeing the website hosting interesting articles and scholarship information. "I am extremely proud of my daughter and her desire to help younger kids whose parents are deployed. This was her initiative and she has had the perseverance to see it through," said Col. Glenn. Katie testified about her life as a military child at a Congressional hearing on Capitol Hill on July 14.
| Date Taken: |
07.19.2009 |
| Date Posted: |
07.19.2009 08:44 |
| Story ID: |
36535 |
| Location: |
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1,068 |
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This work, Military Dependent Creates Blog as Outlet for Kids of Deployed Personnel, by SFC Patricia Ruth, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
