Family Links pulls people together

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Stacia Zachary
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF LAKENHEATH, England --  RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath Airman and Family Readiness Centers and Department of Defense Dependant Schools joined together Jan. 31, 2013, to host Family Links at RAF Lakenheath's Liberty Intermediate School.

The event was centered around helping children and parents cope with the challenges of deployments and was open to any military member or DoD civilian who deploys and has children.

"It is important to have these events where families can have opportunities to network with other families and interact with the 'helping hands' agencies out there," said Maj. Glenn Bright, 100th Air Refueling Wing deputy chaplain. "It's really necessary that the people who help us while we serve, have all the help they need when we aren't here."

The event began with a homemade dinner followed by group sessions, broken down by different age groups for the children and a separate group for the parents. In these groups, everyone participated in an exercise that would help people understand new situations and how to deal with possible stress involved. The goal was to help parents and children find ways to cope with the long and continuous periods of separation military families often face.

"This event is wonderful, mainly because we finally have something," said Master Sgt. Joel Villarin, 95th Reconnaissance Squadron first sergeant, "We didn't have anything like this when (my daughter, Jenni, now 16) was my son's age. She just had to deal with it and we had to hope that we helped her enough. Hopefully, with programs like this, it won't be so hard to help our families through the long hours and the separation."

For more information on the different groups and agencies available to military families, contact the A&FRC at DSN 238-3406 or DSN 226-3847.