Summer camps available for children of deployed military

Dick Benoit

Thursday, April 21, 2005 | 8:40 a.m.

Registration for "Operation Purple" summer camps for children of deployed service members is now open according to a release from the American Forces Press Service, citing the National Military Family Association.

Twenty-two Operation Purple camps will provide summer recreation experiences for more than 2,000 children whose parents are deployed in the U.S. armed forces. The camps are funded through a $100 million commercial commitment aimed at strengthening families and communities by allowing children to attend the camps free of charge.

Association officials said Operation Purple also focuses on helping children deal with deployment-related issues. Applications for children of service members from all branches of the U.S. armed forces are available online through May 15 at www.nmfa.org/site/PageServer.

The five to seven-day camps give children ages 8 to 18 an exciting and memorable camp experience, providing tools to help them deal with the stress resulting from a parent's deployment, officials said, adding that military children are encouraged to apply for the camp located nearest their home.

The camps nearest to Las Vegas are located at Hill Air Force Base near Ogden, Utah; Mountain Home Air Force Base in southern Idaho; and a Kern County Parks District camp near Bakersfield, Calif.

"Children in (Las Vegas) could apply to any of those camps. We only request that applications go to the camp closest to them that meets their needs. Because of age restrictions, this may be any one of those locations," said Lauren Rebeiz, National Military Family Association program manager for Operation Purple.

Oral Arrington, director of Youth Programs at Hill Air Force Base, said that "last year, we had youth arrive from Washington State, Wyoming, Arizona, Idaho, Tennessee, Colorado and of course Utah."

"The closest airport to Hill AFB is Salt Lake City, and we will pick up all youth that arrive there for the purposes of attending our camp," added Arrington.

Other camps are located in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Germany, Italy and Japan.

A complete list of camp dates, sites and other information is available on association's Web site at www.nmfa.org/site/PageServer.

Army commendation

Army Staff Sgt. Charles Baker Jr., Western High School class of 1994 and son of Charles and Cathleen Baker of Las Vegas, has been decorated with the Army Commendation Medal upon his returned to Mannheim, Germany, after a deployment to Kuwait and Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Baker, who received an associate degree in 2004 from the University of Maryland-University College through the military extension program, is regularly assigned to the 72nd Signal Battalion. The medal is awarded to individuals who, while serving in any capacity with the Army, have distinguished themselves by acts of heroism, meritorious achievement or meritorious service.

In brief