Makayla Torrey, facilitator, cuddles with Kynlee Franklin, 7, left, and Victoria Kaiser, 8, during reading time at the Armed Services YMCA’s after-school program at Three Oaks Elementary School called Operation Hero, designed to help elementary age children cope with the deployment of one or both parents or other stress, on Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Portsmouth, Va. (Stephen M. Katz, The Virginian-Pilot/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — A “friendship web” of purple yarn anchored by the hands of a dozen students in the after-school activity illustrated their common connection: They are all military children.
The Three Oaks Elementary students gather in the Virginia Beach school cafeteria every Tuesday and Thursday as part of Operation Hero, a free after-school enrichment program for military children in second through fifth grades. Provided by the Armed Services YMCA of Hampton Roads, the program addresses the unique obstacles faced by military children, including parental deployment, stress related to frequent moves and trauma if a parent is wounded or killed in service.
“We want these kids to understand that they serve too. They are our youngest heroes,” said Laura Smart, youth enrichment program director for the Armed Services YMCA.
The program spans nine weeks and offers sessions twice a week in the fall, winter and spring at host schools with a significant percentage of military-connected students. The program also recently became available to homeschooled children at the Armed Services YMCA location in Virginia Beach.
Spring sessions are being held at Three Oaks Elementary, where 37% of the student body is military-connected, as well as Suffolk’s Florence Bowser Elementary, where 18% of families reported they are military-connected, military school liaison Melissa Johnson said.
Week five focused on coping with deployment, which affects nine of the roughly 30 active participants.
“I am used to my daddy getting me off the bus, and it is not the same anymore,” 7-year-old Kynlee Franklin said about her dad, who is a deployed Navy sailor.
A large part of the program, Smart said, is helping kids understand their parents’ military service. Program facilitators do this with scripted lessons that include hands-on activities and crafts.
“Imagine all the people that have zero homes, and they have no defense. Let’s say someone comes and steals all their stuff. My mom helps people protect those people,” said Mason Boston, 11, when asked to describe his mother’s job.
Mason’s mother is a Navy sailor. She is not currently deployed, but Mason said when she leaves for training at sea, the one or two months she is gone often feels like she is gone for a year.
“I miss her when she leaves. It is really hard,” Mason said.
Makayla Torrey, class facilitator at Three Oaks Elementary, said a parent’s absence as a result of military service is a tough topic for kids ages 7 to 11 to understand.
“They don’t understand why parents have to leave them, or why they have to miss their birthdays or holidays,” Torrey said.
Torrey said she empathizes with what the children are going through. Her husband deployed in October with the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group. The strike group was positioned in the Red Sea in response to rising conflict in the region.
Program facilitators do not discuss any ongoing conflict with the children, Smart and Torrey said, but aim to create a space where the children can voice any emotions they are feeling and work through it with them.
“We want these kids to know that there are people out there that understand what they are going through, how hard it is and teaching them they have got this,” Torrey said.
Simple activities they enjoy, she said, can help them with their big feelings. Those include going for a walk. cuddling a pet or eating a favorite snack.
“But sometimes you’re not OK. Sometimes, the feelings don’t change,” said 10-year-old Amelia Rasmussen.
Amelia is in the program alongside her sisters, Riley, 9, and Olivia, 7. Their dad is a Navy diver with Expeditionary Strike Group Two based at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek. He deployed in December.
“The program has helped to kind of soften the deployment. It is weird and hard not to have your dad around,” mother Megan Rasmussen said.
In Operation Hero, Megan Rasmussen said, her kids have found a supportive community.
“A community of other kids who have dealt with deployments before and others who are in it with them,” she said.
caitlyn.burchett@virginiamedia.com
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