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MarineParents.com Newsletter
a Place to Connect & Share 
In This Issue
Deployment Learning Center
Homecoming Learning Center
Please Visit Our Sponsors
Staff Walk in Memory of Fallen
Father's Day Store is Open!
Letter to Marine Touches his Mom
Black Sea Rotational Force 2010
NEW! Ready MARINES Magazine
Book for Children of Marines
DONATE with every swipe of your card
Support for You:
a Place to
Connect & Share™
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Learning Center:
Operational Security
Operational Security

NOTE: When communicating online, your Marine's privacy is as important as Operational Security. Please respect YOUR Marine's privacy!

Learning Center:
About Deployment
 
 
 
 
 
 
Learning Center:
About Homecoming
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tip: While in our store, check in your Marine's unit store for more homecoming shirts!
Unit Chat Nights
Unit Chat Night Schedule:
 
Monday: 1/3, 1/2
Wednesday: 3/4, 3/7
Thursday: 1/6
Friday: 3/6
Sunday: 24th MEU, 1/9
 
For additional information about the Chat Room and Unit Chat Nights for your Marine's Unit, please see:
           MarineParents.com Chat Gif 
Local Support Groups in Your Area
 
For a list of all support groups in our database or to find one in your area, see:
 
If you are interested in starting a local support group in your area, please visit the "Support Groups" section of our website:
Support Our Marines!
 
 
Purple Heart Hero Support™ an Outreach Program of Marine Parents.com
 
 
Show your support of our Marines and their families!Participate in one of the Marine Parents Outreach Programs today! Our Marines need YOU!
Visit Our Sponsors
Sign Up for the Newsletter 
Join Our Mailing List
May 12, 2010
Greetings Marine Families!
 
  If this is the first edition of the MarineParents.com Newsletter you have received, WELCOME! If you are a returning reader we are glad you have joined us.
 
  It's a particularly challenging time for our families with Marines deployed to Afghanistan. Please keep our Marines and their families in your prayers. If you are one of those families, please know that you are not alone in your fears and anxiety. The mix of those fears with the pride you feel can often times be an overwhelming range of emotions. It's important to acknowledge that both emotions exist, and it's important to find ways to take care of YOU during deployments.  Find a friend you can confide in and make a point to meet with each other on a weekly basis.  Hook up with families on the Marine Parents message boards. If you're in a "good moment," reach out to someone who may need your support.
 
  As we work through the range of emotions with deployment, it's important to read "good news" as often as possible. In this newsletter we're bringing you some of the good news that comes from the work all of us do to support one another in these challenging times. We hope you'll take time to read these great articles in our newsletter this week. 
Staff Walk in Memory of Fallen
Money Raised for Memorial Scholarship 
 
2nd Annual LCpl Leon B. Deraps Memorial Run/Walk/RideThe staff of Marine Parents formed their very own team to participate in Team Marine Parents™ and to accomplish a two-part mission.
 
The first objective was to raise money and awareness for the LCpl Leon B. Deraps Memorial Scholarship Foundation.
 
The second goal was to get involved in the community and support a local event by walking in the 2nd Annual LCpl Leon B. Deraps Memorial run/walk/ride on May 8, 2010.
 
We're pleased to report the Marine Parents staff completed their mission. Saturday, May 8, 2010, they presented a check for just over $500 to Gold Star Mother Sandy Deraps for her son's scholarship foundation.
 
Shortly thereafter, the day's memorial event kicked off with a humble ceremony that surely moved all in attendance.
 
Our Father's Day Store is Open!
Start Shopping AND Support a Great Cause 
 
Father's Day is June 20th and we know you're already thinking of gifts for Dad.
 
From Eagle, Globe, and Anchor aprons for summer barbeques, to USMC hitch covers and license plate frames, we've got your Father's Day shopping needs covered.

Our Father's Day Store is Open!

Shop our EGA Store for gifts the Marine Dad in your life will love, plus an added bonus - your purchase allows you to give back to the organization that supports your Marine family. We thank you for your support!
 
Letter to Marine Touches his Mom
Family and Friends Spotlight  
 
Letter to Marine Touches his MomThe story below sprung from our Care Package Project and, more specifically, the "Dear Marine" cards and letters we include in our packages.
 
"Dear Marine" mail is sent to us from children and adults across the nation. These letters have a huge impact on the Marines receiving them, and in some instances, that impact goes well beyond the Marine as this story poignantly reflects.

You'll want to read this unique story all the way through. It will tug at your heart and remind you of an important lesson - a lesson the sixth-graders at Templeton Middle School faced when they were unexpectedly introduced to the Gold Star Mother of a Marine. Read the story below.
 
For one middle school student and her teacher, a simple school assignment has become a poignant lesson about life and death.

Judy Schatz, a business education teacher at Templeton Middle School in Sussex for the past 20 years, drew inspiration and an idea from Patricia Fry, a fellow teacher. Fry is the mother of a Marine and has become a pillar of support in an organization called MarineParents.com - her way of coping with the stress of her only child's 2005 deployment to Iraq and of connecting with other parents of Marines.
 
 
For more information on sending "Dear Marine" mail to our Care Package Project, visit www.thecarepackageproject.com or click here. 
Marines, Sailors Arrive in Romania
Black Sea Rotational Force 2010
 
Marines, Sailors Arrive in RomaniaBlack Sea Rotational Force marks first of its kind deployment in region

Marines and Sailors put boots on the ground in Romania, May 8, and stepped into history as the first Security Cooperation Marine Air Ground Task Force in the Black Sea region.

The main body of troops forming Black Sea Rotational Force 2010 arrived to Romania's Mihail Kogalniceanu Airfield; a move Marine officials said will foster an increased friendship between U.S. and partner nations.

U.S. troops are deployed here to participate in cooperative activities with partner nations in the Caucasus, Balkan and Black Sea regions. The primary goals of the U.S. rotational force are to promote regional stability, build enduring partnerships with nations in the region, and help those nations build their military capabilities.

Black Sea Rotational Force is scheduled to officially begin May 17, and end in late July. During the rotation, U.S. troops will train with partner nations in peacekeeping operations at training facilities in Babadag, Romania and Novo Selo, Bulgaria, as well as conduct military-to-military familiarization events in nations throughout the region in specialties including nonlethal weapon use, military intelligence and noncommissioned officer development.
 
NEW! Ready MARINES Magazine
The Civil-Military Lifestyle Magazine
 
NEW! Ready MARINES Magazine!The Marine Corps Mobilization Command brings you a brand new electronic magazine with the first ever, May 2010 issue of Ready MARINES.
 
Whether your Marine is transitioning from active duty or coming back from a weekend in the field, Ready MARINES magazine delivers helpful information to keep pace with the reader's current civil-military lifestyle.
 
Contents from the current issue include "Understanding your reserve options," "Mandatory obligations as an IRR Marine," and "Seeking Marines to fill full & part-time opportunities."

The magazine is loaded with important information, photos, videos and more. Use the link below to check out the first issue and be sure to share it with your Marine well!
 
A Salute To Our Heroes
A Perfect Book for Children of Marines
 
A Salute To Our Heroes - The U.S. MarinesDoes your Marine son or daughter have children? If so, you'll want to check out the book review below.
 
Review from our founder, Tracy Della Vecchia
 
If you're looking for a book to encourage a child to talk about the Marine Corps, this will do it.
 
The book is written by an active-duty Marine, so the historical accuracy and terminology are spot on. 
 
The text allows easy reading for anyone, even if without a Marine Corps background. The very detailed and child-friendly illustrations will encourage children to "look" at the book over and over. 
 
DONATE with every swipe of your card!

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.

The banner used at the top of this newsletter is a May, 2010 USMC Photo by Sgt. Michael Cifuentes of Marines as they pour out of an amphibious assault vehicle to storm Carson Beach in South Boston as part of a demonstration to the people of Boston. Click here to read additional credits. 
 
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 & Share™ with one another during deployments. Our free online services and connections have expanded to support and educate Marine moms & dads, spouses, families and friends. We've helped over 40,000 Marine and recruit families during bootcamp, training, active duty and deployments. We've shipped thousands of care packages overseas to our Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, sent thousands of prayers and letters to injured Marines and served hundreds of meals to Wounded Warriors and their families on both the East and West coasts. You've found a Place to Connect & Share™. 
God Bless and Semper Fidelis,
 

Tracy Della Vecchia
Founder and Executive Director
MarineParents.com, Inc.
 
Neither the United States Marine Corps nor any other component of the Department of Defense has approved, endorsed, or authorized this service.