ANSBACH, Germany - Campers learned to build skills needed to deal with difficult situations in positive ways during during Operation Purple Camp July 11-17.
Nestled at Franken Kaserne in the Ansbach military garrison between Illesheim and Ansbach, Operation Purple Camp housed 101 children with parents in the military from throughout the European theatre.
Focusing on children of deployed parents, the special free camp for children ages 9 to 12, helped them build friendships, while gaining a better understanding of difficult times in their lives.
"Kids serve too," said Allison Miller, camp director who is a physical education teacher back home in Arizona. "It is not only taxing on the parents, but on the kids as well."
According to information on the OPC website, the program is the only camp program in existence that brings together kids with parents in all military branches and provides them with tools to deal with war-related stress.
"The purpose of the camp is to help children cope with their feelings about having their parents deployed-multiple times, not having mom and dad there all the time, and having to move away from friends all the time," Miller said.
"We help them learn to share with other kids who are just like them so they do not feel alone and are taking all this on by themselves," said Miller.
During the week-long adventure, there was a special day that focused solely on the military.
"Military Day is part of the Operation Camp Purple curriculum-one day to give the kids a chance to see how does mom and dad do it," explained Miller.
The OPC program is a cooperative effort from various organizations including The National Military Family Association and supported by the Sierra Club.
"Research has shown that the kids are being really affected by this [deployments] and it is affecting their lives in the long-haul," said Miller. "So they wanted to put some kind of working program together to help the kids--and they get it; the light bulbs go off and they bond."
However Miller said she believes the children, normally, do not have much opportunity to express what is going on with them and the camp gives that to them - which she says is good.
"When do they get the chance to talk about this kind of stuff," she said. "When they back out of it [their routine] - are in a different environment and kind of step away and see the big picture - the kids realize what they are going through is not normal, but they are not alone, and as a result, become somewhat independent."
While campers were out learning how mom and dad do what they do, one father expressed how crucial this is for the children.
"We cannot do enough to keep balance within the families while the Soldiers are away," said Col. George Seiferth, U.S. Army Europe deputy chief of staff, who spoke to the campers during the day. "Because we are forward deployed, this is a really great opportunity for the kids and it is so important that we have activities like this for them."
He said that with the stressors children face today in a continuous deployment environment, the military is just realizing what challenges it is facing with a lot of the children.
"Deployments do not just impact Soldiers--it is the whole family package," said Seiferth. "It is about having outlets and different options, and this allows the kids to be able to have another place to go and take their mind off of their parents being deployed."
And campers love it.
"Learning what your parents do and what they go through every day is really fun and we make a lot of new friends doing so," said Taylor Foots, whose parents have been deployed twice. "Camp Purple is really fun and I like it a lot."
"Military day was really cool," said Dean Williams, whose parents have been deployed about six times. "It is a day to respect our parents and others who serve the military."
He said that seeing how the working dogs work and sitting in a cockpit added to his experience.
"Purple Camp is really fun because you get to do a lot of things other kids don't get to do," he said.
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