School gear gets big reception from kids of called-up soldiers

Say what you want about the military, but it is terrific at setting out folding chairs in laser-straight lines.

Children don’t often operate well within straight lines, but the 30 or so kids – ranging from toddlers to teenagers – among the crowd of 50 at the Post Falls National Guard armory Wednesday evening, did their best. They waited patiently through speeches and presentations and didn’t break ranks until the backpacks were handed out.

Thanks to the effort of volunteers with the Boys and Girls Club and donations from North Idaho businesses, children with a parent called up to active duty in preparation for a year in Iraq each received a new backpack loaded with school supplies.

The kids were called up one by one and were also given a certificate that read, in part, “We are grateful to you for sharing your parents … Your sacrifice is an enormous one.”

Moments later, the military order in the armory had vanished as happy kids pulled notebooks and crayons and markers and protractors out of the recesses of the backpacks and held them up with cries of “Mom! Look at this!”

One little boy announced to his brother, matter-of-factly, “I got the coolest one.”

The moms stood back and smiled.

“I’m really thrilled at what the Boys and Girls Club has done,” Michelle Kish, a mother of two, said. “People in the community have done so many things, but this is so practical, so thoughtful. Some of these families have four or five kids.”

Active-duty pay is far better than regular Guard pay, people have said, but many of these families are now operating minus a spouse who had a good civilian job.

“Factor that in and it really gets spendy” to go back-to-school shopping, Kish said.

“And this is fun for the kids, too, because not everything about their dads being deployed is fun,” Kish said.

Watching her daughters gleefully climb through a Humvee with a crowd of other kids after the giveaway, Mariann Stam said Wednesday’s event was heartwarming.

“They get to be the center of attention,” Stam said. “This is something just for them.”

These are kids who have gone through all the stages of loss, said Teresa Bucher, a mother of two and stepmother to three kids. “The kids are starting to come out of it. They were angry at first. They went through the depression stage.”

She looked like a weight had been lifted, if only briefly, watching all the kids bounce and shriek inside the Humvee, poking their heads out of windows and hatches. They were smiling. They were just kids, after all. Kids who got cool backpacks filled with cool stuff. Kids who got a little certificate saying thanks for sharing their moms and dads.