Blue Star Families (BSF) and Kids in Distressed Situations, Inc. (K.I.D.S.) joined forces with North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue to bring the healing power of books to military children and their schools through the national program, Books on Bases, Smiles on Faces. The program was launched at W.T. Brown Elementary School in Spring Lake, NC, which is just outside the gates of Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base, and 4,000 new books were given to 17 Department of Defense and 20 military impacted schools.

“Our program will make the library resources more robust and encourage military families to use them,” said Blue Star Families Executive Director, Claire Woodward.  “Including military-impacted public schools in the effort helps bridge the gap between military families and the greater community, who will also benefit from the books.  Our program will also hopefully remind the public about the service and dedication of our military families, and possibly encourage service in others.”

Governor Bev Perdue joined the national kick-off event, reading a book called "Home is Where the Army Sends You," by North Carolina author and educator Melissa Davis. Perdue engaged and interacted with the kids, who were riveted by their time with her, by asking them questions about the book and about military life.

Also in attendance were NASCAR driver and Duke University student Paulie Harraka, who stressed the importance of education and signed autographs for the kids. The USO of North Carolina and the Military Families Lifestyle Charitable Foundation joined the Books on Bases, Smiles on Faces event to launch the Salute to America’s Military campaign to raise funds and enrich the lives of America’s troops and their families in North Carolina. The campaign will include events across North Carolina over the next several months.

With the eighth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, military families around the country are experiencing the heavy burdens of multiple deployments. The goal of Books on Bases, Smiles on Faces is to give military kids creative outlets to dream and learn and help them cope with the challenges faced by military families.  The program will also offer support to the strained infrastructure of school libraries on bases and provide an excellent volunteer program to help bring military and non-military communities closer.

“For a child, developing a focus in reading and an interest in books can help him or her deal with life issues and heal wounds,’ said Dr. Marc Atkins, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at University of Illinois at Chicago, whose own son recently returned from a deployment in Iraq. “In many ways children can heal by experiencing something in someone else’s shoes.  Just the way we all need to relax and remove ourselves from the stresses in our adult world.”

Blue Star Families will distribute an additional 6,000 books in the Southeastern United States by the end of 2009, and is currently communicating with 70 Blue Star Families chapters to develop activities in other areas for 2010.

“For several years now we have been working with the communities that support military families, bringing them new clothes, shoes, toys and juvenile products,” said Dr. Janice Weinman, president of K.I.D.S.  “We are so pleased to be working with Blue Star Families to bring the healing power of books to military children, and we are looking forward to expanding this program throughout 2010.” 


About K.I.D.S.
K.I.D.S. brings hope and self-esteem to children and their families by providing new clothes, shoes, toys, furniture, books and juvenile products donated by leading manufacturers and retailers. The donations move through a network of community social service agencies in the U.S. and abroad to reach children living in poverty, the homeless, domestic abuse victims, children with low literacy, military families, ill children, families of the incarcerated and disaster survivors.  More information is available online at www.kidsdonations.org.

**Special thanks to Samantha of Samantha H. Photography for photos of the Fayetteville, NC event.**

More to Come From Books on Bases, Smiles on Faces

Blue Star Families and K.I.D.S plan to distribute 10,000 books to military children in 2009.  Each chapter will select a minimum of 5 local schools to receive the books. The average donation to each library is between 50-100 books. In 2010 our goal is to distribute 25,000 books, 30,000 in 2011, and 35,000 in 2012 to reach our goal of providing 100,000 books to military children.

Thanks to our partnership with K.I.D.S. (Kids in Distressed Situations), a Fortune 200 company, Blue Star Families has thousands books to distribute to our military communities.   

A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS FOR THE SEPT. 10 BOOKS ON BASES, SMILES ON FACES LAUNCH NEAR FORT BRAGG. CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR SPONSORS.

Get Books for Military Kids in Your Area

 If you are interested in getting more information about hosting an event or learning if it’s a good fit for your community, please our Director of Programs at programs@bluestarfam.org.  We will be looking for military communities across the country in need of books, so contact us today to see if this program is right for your community!

We'll provide everything you need to make a tremendous impact on the lives of your community's military children ~ not only all the books, but plenty of support, as well.