In Time of War, a Helping Hand

Group Aids Kids of Deployed National Guard and Reserve Parents

CLEVELAND -- When her father went off to war, 13-year-old Brittney Wilkinson felt angry. She cried at unexpected times and battled her older sister, Ashley. At school, she seemed withdrawn. When her mother saw an offer that would pay for art classes for both girls, she jumped at it.

"Any distraction that I can find, helps," Natalie Wilkinson said.

Brittney explored computer-assisted art and turned a corner. She learned how to "make things look like they're coming out of the page." Her teacher told her she had a gift. She focused on designing a logo -- a caduceus (two serpents entwined around a winged staff) topped by an eagle -- for her father's 285th Aerial Support Medical Company headquarters in Iraq.

By the tens of thousands, children such as Brittney are learning firsthand what it is like to have a parent at war, and their parents are witnessing the stress that often emerges from the abrupt absence, the sense of danger, the interruption of routines.

"There's stress that goes along with not knowing if your parent is going to be okay. Hearing or seeing very graphic things. Hearing about mass casualties," said Judith A. Cohen, a Pittsburgh child psychiatrist.

To meet the need of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which have meant the deployment of more than 1 million Americans since 2001, nonprofit groups are sprouting from seeds of good intentions. One is Our Military Kids, which provides grants for activities to children such as the Wilkinsons.

Started in McLean in 2005, the organization has delivered more than $600,000 to the children of deployed National Guard and reserves parents in chunks no greater than $500. Payments have reached children in all 50 states, the District and Puerto Rico.

In Ohio alone, grants have paid for lessons in swimming, dance, cheerleading, martial arts, piano, football, acting, bowling, softball and driver's education. The money may not stretch far, but children, parents and National Guard officers say the cash often makes a critical difference at a time when many kids feel needy.

"It just works," said Lt. Col. Robert Bramlish, director of the Ohio National Guard's family readiness program. "Extracurriculars are important, no matter what they are. A lot of times, what the kids need is just some outside camaraderie time."

One supporter is Angie Dixon, a mail carrier whose husband will have been gone 15 months when he returns from Kuwait this month. After the deployment began, 13-year-old Riley Dixon "was just a really angry kid. He couldn't concentrate on school. He was getting in a lot of fights at school because kids were picking on him. I was at wit's end."

Dixon was considering quitting work and home-schooling her son in Marietta, Ohio. With $500 from Our Military Kids, she paid for testing and a month of tutoring. Something clicked. Riley settled down, and his grades went up. He made the honor roll.

"We have been able to see what a difference these relatively small grants can make," said Linda Davidson, the program's co-executive director who spent 19 years at IBM before joining Gail Chipman Kruzel to start Our Military Kids. The two women met through their children at Langley High and later combined on a project that saw them interviewing National Guard spouses.