Ticket of admission a parent in the service

Summer camp designed for children with parents in the Armed Forces

By LAUREN L. DILLARD

Of The News-Register

From Thailand to Twentynine Palms and Singapore to Salem, Duniway Middle Schooler Michaela Shouldis has relatives who've served in the military around the world.

That qualifies her for Operation Purple Camp in Salem, underwritten by the National Military Family Association. The camp is specifically designed for the children of currently deployed or recently deployed soldiers.

Michaela is currently stationed at the camp. Her mission is to have fun and be royally distracted, according to Mike Beaver, a licensed clinical social worker helping run the operation.

Her dad is a U.S. Marine and her mom a Air Force mechanic. They are home right now, but have served previously in Thailand and Singapore.

She has an uncle, now in China, who served previously with the Marines. Her uncle was once stationed in Oakland and her dad was once stationed in Twentynine Palms.

The camp is free for qualifying children, and that qualifies Michaela.

"Children's issues are particularly near and dear to our hearts," said Patty Barron, director of youth initiatives for the Military Family Association. "Camps just seemed like a normal program to develop."

"If my children are OK, I'm OK," is a common sentiment in the military, Barron said. And Operation Purple Camp is one means of ensuring that.

During the summer months, Operation Purple will be hosting 44 camps in 34 locations in 26 states. The Salem 4-H camp is hosting 116 kids in the 8 to 11 age range over a two-week period.

The camps focus on bringing children together and helping them develop an element of camaraderie with other kids of military parents. In Oregon, that mostly means National Guardsmen and off-base soldiers, and children in those groups don't have as much opportunity to seek each other out.

Beaver said they enjoy getting that opportunity, and Michaela agreed. "It's nice to talk to people about it," she said.

Born in Southern California's Twentynine Palms, home of a Marine Corps base, the 11-year-old camper is the only one currently in camp with ties to McMinnville.

Back home, there are few kids who can relate to her situation. But at camp, there are many.

The campers learn how to identify plants, classify types of water, analyze eco-systems, catch frogs and build bird nests.

"We need more mud for the sides," came a collective shout of 10- and 11-year-old girls hoping to recreate a swallow's straw nest, which is held together with mug. "Run to the volleyball net, crawl under it three times and come back," shouted a counselor at a group of boys waiting for the next event, "Army crawl!"

In addition to three nutritious meals a day, the agenda features archery, swimming, canoeing and horseback riding. And this week's group has already compiled cloth panels of handprints for a quilt that will be sent to the Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis.

"I think it's a distraction," Beaver said. "They are here to have fun."

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