When a soldier in Iraq wanted to send his kids a gift, he was limited as to what he had access to: a couple of band aids and some sun screen! It didn’t matter too much, his kids were thrilled to received anything at all! That story is the inspiration behind “Dog Tags for Kids”!
The Dog Tags for Kids project is dedicated to helping United States Service men and women in harm’s way, to connect with their children at home. The idea is to send something to a deployed Mom or Dad that they can easily send back to their kids!
Dog tags were just perfect! Each one is engraved with “With Love From Dad, U.S. Army, Iraq 2010″. (or Mom; or Kuwait or Afghanistan). The tags are small enough to easily fit in an envelope and send home.
The dog tags must come from the parents so all dog tags are sent to Iraq, Kuwait, or Afghanistan at the request of the service members. Then the service members can send one to their child at home.
Rose Sliepka is the amazing woman behind this grassroots project that depends entirely on volunteers and donations to continue the missions. Rose actually engraves all of the tags and has volunteers in California that help bag them and box them for shipping.
Each parent soldier that is in harm’s way can receive a dog tag at no charge!
Since the project’s beginning, they have now sent over 500,000 tags to our men and women fighting in harm’s way. Soldier’s love sending them and their kids love receiving them!
How YOU can help:
- Request tags for deployed soldiers
- Make a monetary donation or learn more
- We need your votes! You can help Dog Tags for Kids win $2500 for their project which will help supply another 5000+ tags that will result in a lot of smiles! Simply click here and vote for Rose Sliepka from Lanacaster, CA who has unselfishly dedicated herself to this wonderful program. Thank you!
The national media finally picked up the news, and it ran on Fox stations across the country.
If your deployed son or daughter has young children, Build-a-Bear sound messages are a great way for them to always be nearby if only by voice. My son and daughter-in-law got a Build-a-Bear with sound message for each of their young children before he left for deployment to Afghanistan.
Now, when his one year old daughter needs the comfort of Daddy’s voice, she just squeezes her cuddly bear’s toe and listens as Daddy tells her to have sweet dreams while she sleeps. His three year old son holds his bear close while he listens to Daddy sing their favorite song at bedtime!
If you know someone with young children that is leaving for deployment soon, Build-a-Bear with a personalized sound message is a nice treat to leave behind for the kids. This is an awesome idea, especially for deployed parents to record themselves and then the kids can listen to their mommy or daddy at night!
Click here to find out more about Build-a-Bear with personalized sound messages. Be sure to select “Personalized Build a Sound Message” from the sound selection list.
