Memorial Day Message

Catching Up with Trevor & The Crew

Trevor and The Crew have been busy traveling all over the U.S. for our With You All the Way! USO Tour, and we've seen some great military kids! So far this year, we have visited thirty elementary schools and youth centers, enjoying the opportunity to speak with over 12,500 kids. Coming up next quarter we will visit schools in Georgia, Virginia, Washington D.C, and Washington State. 

Here is what people are saying! 

"My experience with Trevor Romain over the past three days would qualify as the first time that I feel the word profound, in my professional experience.  The event at our school was a powerful experience that allowed the students to hear, see and feel the experiences that Trevor shared. The students returned to school today still speaking of a story or experience they heard Trevor share yesterday.  One child, whose single father is deployed and mother is deceased, went home and told his grandfather he missed his dad.  The grandfather took a picture of Dad and alongside the picture wrote the words 'My Hero, My Dad' for the child to use as a journal cover so he could be close to his father.  This is just one experience immediately following Trevor’s visit. Thank you to the USO for providing this needed resource for our school that over the years has ranged from 65 to 80% military dependents." Principal, North Carolina

"As a parent of a well adjusted 24 year old son you would never think that this one little news story would have so much of a profound effect on me but last night's story on WLOX had me in tears and my really making my heart ache in a way that I thought I would never feel again. You see when my son was in the seventh grade he started having problems in school and I noticed that he was always sad. One day there was an altercation at school and I was called in to talk with the staff. Alex was being bullied. Part of the thing that hit me the hardest was that these kids.... were bullying him about his dad serving in the military! To keep the long gory details to a minimum, they were taunting him and telling him that his dad was going to die a bloody death during his (at the time) upcoming deployment to Iraq. This little boy kept all this buried, having nightmares, being bullied everyday to protect his mom. I wish there had been a resource like this back then but now there are more." Mother, Mississippi

"Thank you, what a wonderful resource! The students absolutely LOVED the assembly and they really HEARD the message! I was so happy to hear some of the things they shared with Mr. Romain.  Thank you so much from our Faculty and Staff for delivering such an important message and for making our kids feel important!!! What a gift!" Counselor, Texas

The With You All the Way! USO Tour is an engaging presentation led by Co-Founder, Trevor Romain. The presentation, emphasizes the importance of caring for one another and developing valuable strategies for dealing with the unique challenges of military life. To learn more about the tour watch the trailer video today!

Why? A Poem by Bobby Henline

Trevor's Journal: The Patch

Local radio station launching care package campaign to give back to troops deployed- asking Austinites to give

Contact: Ashley Kamrath                                                              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cell Phone: 254-226-0556

Email: ashleykamrath@yahoo.com    

 SOLDIERS DEPLOYED TO AFGHANISTAN FACING LONG HOLIDAY SEASON

Local radio station launching care package campaign to give back to troops deployed- asking Austinites to give

Austin, TX (November 1, 2012) The Holiday season is supposed to be the happiest time of the year, but for those not able to be with their loved ones, it can be the loneliest.  Thousands of American men and women will be spending their Christmas in Afghanistan facing hard weather and terrain but more importantly, holidays away from their families, friends and comforts of home so that each of us can be with ours.

“This time last year I was in Afghanistan with nothing by my assault rifle. I was all alone while my family was trying to have a normal holiday back home” said LT Rick Tackaberry, “I was trying to pretend it was just another day but I could only deny it for so long and everyone has that moment when they realize.” Tackaberry,a 27-year-old U.S. Army Lieutenant and single father of five adopted children, is currently stationed at Fort Bliss, TX and continued “getting packages in the mailhelped me feel connected to home, even if they were from strangers.”

Each Saturday this Fall, ESPN Austin (104.9 The Horn) has featured a military hero that has gone above and beyond the call of duty in their series, The Real Heroes. This November, they’ll be collecting supplies and monetary donations to send care packages to soldiers deployed to Afghanistan in time for Christmas with their Real Heroes Care Campaign.

Deployed soldiers are in need ofbasic items, always welcome comforts from home and truly enjoy cards and letters from home. Requested items include: travel-size toiletries, eye drops, chapstick, hand and feet warmers, socks, beef jerky, hard candy, coffee, etc. (a full list of acceptable items can be found at www.espnaustin.com).

“It should be a high priority for any American to remember and give back to those that protect our freedoms to live in this great country, and what better time to do that than the Holiday season,” says Ashley Kamrath, Host of The Horn’s Real Heroes.

Austin and surrounding area residents are asked to drop off their donations at The Range Golf Center and Sports Bar (10910 Domain Dr., Ste.120, Austin, TX 78758) or any of the ESPN Austin live radio remotes in November. 

The Real Heroes Care Campaign will run the entire month of November with a special all-day live remote and drop-off event at The Range Golf Center and Sports Bar on November 23^rd (Black Friday, 9am-7pm).

There will also be a special invite-only VIP/Media event on December 3^rd from 6-8pm at The Range Golf Center and Sports Bar to package up items received with special guests.

For more information on “The Real Heroes” radio series on ESPN Austin, visit: http://www.espnaustin.com/page.php?page_id=341 or the facebook page: www.facebook.com/therealheroesmilitary

Email: ashleykamrath@yahoo.com; Phone: 254-226-0556 or 210-360-9199.

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CCMK Bracelets Are On Their Way!

Just in time for the holiday season, The Comfort Crew will soon be selling our very own bracelets! Two versions will be available, a long, wrap-around version (pictured below) and a shorter version. Both will each have a Cuzzie button clasp (with his trademark goggles!), and a CCMK dog tag charm.

Profits from CCMK Bracelets will go toward sponsoring Grief Kits for military children who have lost a loved one. Read more about the Grief Kit here. These unique pieces of jewelry will be a perfect gift for the holidays, giving the recipient as well as the giver the knowledge that they've helped a military child in need.

If you'd like to be informed when CCMK Bracelets officially go on sale, make sure to sign up for our newsletter today!

Wrap-around CCMK Bracelet - so cute!

Diary of a Military Kid: Keeping it in Perspective

This blog is part of a series that former military child and current college sophomore Alison will be writing  for The Comfort Crew. Her unique voice and viewpoint are a great insight into the mindset of a child who has faced the challenges of being in a military family.

For most of my teenage-hood I skipped out on that phase of intense embarrassment of my parents and seeming need to make my entire belief structure stand in stark contrast to theirs the media is constantly promoting. A lot of that rebellion just comes naturally with age, but I’m sure shows targeting pre-teens with caricatures of “lame” parents, examples of the socially disastrous consequences of groundings, and the need to be constantly socially connected with your peers versus your parents don’t help much either.

There was, however one rough spot (okay, a few) of my adolescence. It came with the second year in a row of several that my dad was an absent member of the household. Though he had been deployed the first year, the second and third consecutive years he was elsewhere he was able to visit about once a month. And though I was thankful to be able to see him that limited amount, it made reintegration a long, drawn out process.

My dad didn’t know who my friends were, what my teachers looked like (he hadn’t been to a parent-teacher conference or awards assembly in years) or even what it was like to go through the daily household motions of carpooling, schedule tweaking, and pick-up times.  So I shouldn’t have been surprised when he showed some concern about who I was hanging out with. But I interpreted that concern as an insult. In my mind, I had been hanging out with the same friends and mentioning their names often enough for him to know exactly who they were- but he had no faces to match names with. He had a few measures of catch-up parenting when he was home to make him more a part of the daily picture that I took serious issue with. A curfew that was a whole hour earlier than my mom allowed? You might as well have told me women’s right to vote had been revoked or the sky was falling. If I got in trouble while Dad was home I had two options: pick my own punishment (a grueling psychological test), or manual labor. If you haven’t ever experienced friction with your parents, try scrubbing all the windows of your house inside and out on a 100+ degree summer day when you could be doing something obviously more important. Failure to come home on time meant a stern talking to, and forget dating.

Needless to say, I had a tough time dealing with the efforts of absentee parenting. Now I can say my anger came from not having him around more often, though then it seemed like I’d rather him just not be home because it was stressful all around. But I remember the minute I realized none of that friction ever really mattered much to me in the scheme of things. I was home from my first year of college and at the high school Academic Awards Banquet to see my brother receive an award.  As teachers stopped by the table to catch up and say hi all night, it didn’t even cross my mind that I’d have to introduce my dad since I had known them for four years. But as the night came to a close, my dad pointed out that we hadn’t introduced him to one teacher. We hadn’t even realized he’d never met them.

That, to me, was big. I had been so concerned with so many nitpicky things like curfew that I didn’t even realize I was ignoring the wealth of those few weekends I had him home, and how important they were for him.  And now I know, if asked years from now about that particular curfew violation or Friday night I thought my life would end because I couldn’t go to a concert, I’d be way more likely to remember the times I spent with my dad and the times he missed.