I'm always telling people I have the best job in the world. This weekend definitely proved it.
You see, Blue Star Families had a wonderful opportunity to team with ServiceNation: Mission Serve and the USO for a special service project in conjunction with the "Hiring Our Heroes" employment fair on July 10, 2011. The hiring fair was organized by ServiceNation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and was held at Sony Picture Studios in Los Angeles. Along with the hiring fair and service event, came two very special guests. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - aka Will and Kate - attended the hiring fair and participated in the service project.
For the service project, we packed 1,000 care packages for military children with parents about to be deployed. But we had to add the special Blue Star Families twist! Enter, Operation Honor Cards. Throughout the hiring fair, Blue Star Families volunteers worked to collect pledges of community service in honor of our military families, service members and veterans, along with notes of thanks. We displayed these cards on an Honor Wall during the event (see top photo) and placed some of them into the care packages. All together, we collected pledges of more than 2,000 hours of community service in honor of military families! I'm so excited that the families receiving those care packages will see that someone took the time to say more than just thank you, but also to take action. From the Blue Star Families 2010 Military Family Lifestyle Survey, we know that military families volunteer at very high rates. So what better way to honor a military family than by taking the time to give back to the community?
During his speech, the Duke said, "This is the last event on our tour of North America, but to my mind, it is one of the seriously most important. This is because it is about men and women who - of their own freewill - choose to put their life on the line for their Country." I couldn't agree more. It meant a great deal that the Royal couple chose to use their popularity to shine a spotlight on military families, service members, and veterans. You see, we take for granted the popular support our military families receive in the U.S. During the event, I spoke with a member of the Army in the UK who said that, while in uniform, he is frequently approached in the US and thanked for his service. But he indicated that it's a rare occurrence in his home country. In the UK, until recently it simply wasn't safe for service members to wear their uniforms in public, what with IRA bombings and the like. But when the military isn't necessarily visible, I think it can be easy to forget that service members are still there, doing a dangerous job.
During the care package event, I had the chance to speak with both the Duke and Duchess. They were disarmingly warm and engaging and asked many questions about military families and the children who will receive the packages. The Duchess mentioned that she would love to implement service projects for military families, like this one, back in the UK. She indicated she just hadn't had time yet. I joked that we would give her a few months seeing as how she just got married! But in all seriousness, I'm sure that she will do it. I'm expecting great things from this Royal couple and I can't wait to see what they do next.
Click here for a photo of me talking to the Duchess. Yes, she's very tall. And very skinny. And also very sweet. To read more about the experience, you can check out People Magazine.
Top photo by me. The next three photos by by Ian Wagreich, courtesy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and ServiceNation: Mission Serve. Photos below by me.
You can see the rest of my photos below:
Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.
