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MarineParents.com Newsletter
a Place to Connect & Share™
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December 16, 2006
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Support for you: a Place to Connect Connect & Share™
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MarineParents.com Store Links
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Dear Marine Corps Families,
If this is the first edition of the MarineParents.com
Newsletter you have received, WELCOME! If you are
a returning reader we are glad you have joined us.
We thank you for your support and hope that we can
support you.
This edition of the newsletter is an overview of the
MarineParents.com web site and the many services
offered to the families and friends of Marines as well
as services for Marines.
Bringing Marine Corps families together to
Connect & Share™ with one another is our
primary function. Our mission includes four distinct
areas: Informing, Connecting, Sharing, and
Supporting. We DO NOT address or allow political
issues. We DO allow freedom of spiritual
proclamations, support and prayer. We DO believe in
God, Family, Country and The United States Marine
Corps.
Community awareness for troop support is a vital
component of our work at MarineParents.com. The
Care Package Project™, Operation PAL™,
and Team Marine Parents™ provide
opportunities to involve your community in actively
supporting our troops.
On behalf of the volunteers of MarineParents.com, I
would like to wish each of you a Merry Christmas and
Happy Holidays.
The MarineParents.com Web Site
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Supporting our Marine Corps Families
The web site addresses a wide range of topics, each
backed by links to official sites and resources. Topics
include the United States Marine Corps, MCRD
bootcamp and graduations at both Parris Island and
San Diego, unit and battalion information, combat,
deployments, military benefits, resources for our new
generation of combat veterans, and countless other
topics including relaxation and coping skills.
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a Place to Connect & Share™
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Message Boards, Chat Room, Live Support
Support for family and friends of our U.S. Marines is
offered through the web site’s trademark in "a Place
to Connect & Share™" which includes live
support, email support, chat rooms and message
board communities. Both the chat rooms and
message boards are moderated for safety and to
assure compliance with OPSEC (Operational
Security).
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Support During Bootcamp
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Parris Island, SC and San Diego, CA
Overwhelmed with the prospect of sending your
recruit off to bootcamp? We offer "a Place to
Connect & Share%trade;" putting friends and family
members from each graduating platoon together on
message boards and chat rooms for support and
encouragement. The bootcamp section of the web
site includes the training matrix, what to expect from
the USMC, graduation information and much more.
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Support During Deployment
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Accurate Information About USMC Deployments
Deployment presents many challenges for families of
our Marines. We offer "a Place to Connect &
Share™" putting friends and families from each
unit together on the same message boards and chat
rooms. Use the deployment information section to
find answers to every question you may have
including phone cards, care packages, travel,
communication, contact information and more.
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The Care Package Project™
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Involve Your Community in Supporting Our Troops!
We ship 700-1000 care packages every 10 weeks to
Marines stationed in combat zones. Family and
friends can request a package to be sent to their
deployed Marine at no charge. Organizations,
individuals, and communities are encouraged to
support our troops by working with us to donate both
funding and care package items. As per military
policy, addresses are not given to the public.
You can encourage community awareness for
Supporting Our Troops by holding care package
drives and sending the items to MarineParents.com
to ship to our Marines overseas in combat zones, or
asking your community to sponsor a care package.
Our program assures Marines' overseas mailing
addresses and last names are never published.
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Operation PAL™
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Prayers and Letters for our Injured Marines
Operation Prayers and Letters™ is a project that
supports our Marines who have been injured. We
work with families to setup a private mailing address
for the injured Marine. People, church groups, and
school children around the US add these Marines to
prayer lists as well as write cards and letters for the
Marines which we forward in huge envelopes for the
Marines. The morale boost is incredible! Beginning
January, 2007 we'll provide lunch one weekend each
month to the Marine Corps families in temporary
residence at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
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Unit Information Database
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Search for your Marine's Unit
Every Marine is assigned to a unit or battalion in the
Marine Corps. Often, finding information about that
particular unit can be challenging. Our database
includes virtually every unit in the Marine Corps and
includes base locations, current station, phone
numbers, the unit FRO (Family Readiness Officer, a
contact for family members), and links to the unit’s
message boards and chat night schedule.
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Marine Corps News Room
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News About Our Marines, RSS News Feeds
The Marine Corps News Room is a collection of news
articles about our Marines, the United States Marine
Corps, and our Marine Corps families. The news room
is updated daily with articles from around the globe.
You can simply visit the web site to read the articles,
or it is also available as an RSS data feed which you
can subscribe to through most internet communities
like Google, MSN and Yahoo!
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Annual National Conference
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St. Louis, Missouri April 20-22, 2007
The MarineParents.com, Inc. Conference is held in a
different state every year on the third Friday of April
for the full weekend. Join other Marine Corps family
members for a weekend of fun, education, and esprit
de Corps. The conference includes VIP Marines, key
note speakers, banquets, workshops, presenters,
vendors and exhibits, authors’ hall, and "a Place to
Connect & Share™" with one another.
In keeping with this year's conference
theme, “Honoring Our Marines Today and Tomorrow”,
our keynote speaker will be LtGen. George R.
Christmas who is currently the President of the
Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. Additional
speakers will be Colonel Jack Jackson, USMC Retired,
and Dr. Mike Colson, former Navy Commander and
Chaplain who is now the outreach coordinator with
the Seattle Vet Center assisting returning Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans. We'll be including several
active duty Marines as speakers, authors, and
presenters as well.
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Gold Star Marine Corps Families
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Private Area Exclusively for Gold Star Families
We offer private services to "Gold Star Families",
those that have lost their son or daughter during
active duty with the Marine Corps. Meeting and
communicating with families who understand your
pain and grief can help. We give you that
opportunity, no matter where you are in the world, in
a private chat room, message board, and annual
gathering. Access to this area is limited to Gold Star
family and friends only.
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Team Marine Parents™
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Bootcamp Challenge & Marine Corps Marathon
Team Marine Parents™ is comprised of Marine
family members and Marines who participate in either
the Bootcamp Challenge at the Marine Corps Recruit
Depot in San Diego or the Marine Corps Marathon in
Washington, DC each October. The mission of the
team is to raise community awareness to support our
troops and to raise money for the projects and
services offered through MarineParents.com, Inc. We
are always looking for more folks to join Team Marine
Parents™!
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Devil Dog Chow™
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A Collection of Recipes from Marine Corps Families
Devil Dog Chow™ is an amazing collection of
recipes and inspiration. Families and friends from
around the United States have contributed the
favorite recipes of our Marines and recruits, honoring
them in our own small way. Our love for our Marines
and recruits can be found throughout this cookbook
as it is found in our everyday lives.
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We hope this week's edition of our email
newsletter has been useful for you and your family. If
there are topics you would like us to address, or if
you have other suggestions for the newsletter,
please contact us.
Top Photo courtesy of the USMC. Marines, Soldiers,
Sailors, civilian contractors and Iraqi children
sing “Silent Night” during the candlelight worship on
Christmas Eve at Al Asad, Iraq, December 24, 2005.
Photo by Cpl. Cullen J. Tiernan.
MarineParents.com, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public
charity. MarineParents.com, Inc. was founded in
January, 2003 in response to parents' needs to find
information and to Connect & Share™ with one
another during deployments. Our free online services
and connections have expanded to support and
educate Marine moms & dads, spouses, families and
friends and we're now offering the Annual National
Conference in St. Louis, 2007. We've helped over
30,000 Marine and recruit families during bootcamp,
training, active duty and deployments. We've shipped
thousands of care packages overseas to our Marines
in Iraq and Afghanistan and sent thousands of
prayers and letters to injured Marines. You've found
a Place to Connect & Share™.
God Bless and Semper Fidelis,
Tracy Della Vecchia, Founder
MarineParents.com, Inc.
Phone:
573-449-2003
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