Kiwanis Club of Easton to form mentoring program for children of deployed service members

By Colin McEvoy, The Express-Times
Published November 14, 2011, in lehighvalleylive.com 
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/easton/index.ssf/2011/11/kiwanis_club_of_easton_to_form.html 

EASTON, PENNSYLVANIA—There are more than 32,000 men and women with children in Pennsylvania serving in the military on active duty, Reserves or the National Guard.

In the face of statistics like those, members of the Kiwanis Club of Easton are hoping they can give something back to some of those families when it's time for them to be deployed.

They plan to start a mentoring program — called Operation: Peace of Mind — for the children of men and women who have been deployed.

Kiwanis members would volunteer their services to these children at no cost to the families, said Williams Township resident Christopher Paltz, who is leading the program. 

Kiwanis members said the program will provide emotional support to the children and give much-needed relief to the spouse of the deployed service member.

"Particularly with younger children, the spouses have a lot to deal with that they probably would not have had to deal with if their partner was still at home," said Walter Howell, of Easton, a Kiwanis member who served on the program's organizing committee. "This would be one less thing they have to deal with."

Robin Edwards, state youth coordinator for the Pennsylvania National Guard, said the program will help keep children involved and connected to their community while also supporting their parents.

"That's extremely important because sometimes some of our families begin to get caught up with the day-to-day activities," Edwards said. "It's a phenomenal program that has great benefits."

Once Operation: Peace of Mind starts, Edwards said, the National Guard will advertise the service for servicemen and women with children between the ages 4 and 18 who want to participate.

Paltz said the volunteers would serve one to two hours every other week with the children, providing mentoring along the same lines as the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

Volunteers would spend time with the kids engaged in parent-approved activities such as visits to restaurants, book reading, sporting events or writing letters to their deployed parent.

"They will not be a substitute mother or father or anything like that," Paltz said. "They will just be a pal, a mentor, someone to spend time with them."

Kiwanis members would not be allowed to volunteer until they have been in the club at least six months and have gone through a background check, he said.

The club submitted the program proposal to the Kiwanis International headquarters in Indiana, Howell said. Final approval to start the program is pending.

If approved, Paltz said, he hopes the idea will spread beyond the Easton club not only throughout the Lehigh Valley but also throughout the country.

Howell said the program serves the overall Kiwanis mission, which is to help children and improve their communities around the world. Paltz said it also gives their volunteers who might not otherwise have the opportunity to serve in the military the chance to give back and help them.

"By serving the deployed soldier and their children, you're actually serving your country, and not everybody has that chance," he said.

The Kiwanis Club chose the National Guard due to the high rate of rotations. Guard deployments typically last 12 to 18 months, Paltz said.