Since 2006 officials at the Sesame Workshop have been putting together videos, posters and parent's guides to help young children and their parents get through the tough times that come with a military parent's deployment overseas.
Last year they took the project a step further, making a video where Elmo and his friends learn about the challenges when troops come back home, including the story of one soldier who comes back from war in a wheelchair.
Yesterday the Workshop announced their next, heartbreaking task: Helping those young viewers who've lost a parent how to deal with their grief.
The new video is scheduled to come out late next spring. Workshop officials are coordinating the newest video with military officials, will make the DVD available free to military families and family readiness groups. But the target audience will be all youngsters who lose a parent, and are looking for answers.
From the Workshop's press release:
... One in 20 American children under the age of 15 loses a parent (or both parents.) The loss of a parent can be caused by car accidents, illness, suicide, and war-related incidents, among others. Special populations, like military families, are more at risk to experience a sudden death. Around 1,345 children from military families lost a parent serving in the military during 2006 to 2007 alone.
The death of a parent is one of the most difficult things a child can face. Grieving encompasses one’s whole being: cognitively, behaviorally, emotionally and psychologically. For young children in particular, loss can feel overwhelming as they are learning and developing while their lives drastically change.
Before that, however, the Sesame Street gang will have the much happier task of helping create 35 Sesame Rooms across America "designed to brighten up military spaces for kids with the kinds of cheer only the Muppets can deliver."
The rooms will be set up in places like military hospitals, libraries, child care centers, and family support centers. The first was unveiled on Thursday at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey and dedicated to the memory of Staff Sgt. Jason Keefer, who died of cancer in January and whose family was featured in the previous military Sesame Street videos.
Locations and set-up dates for the other rooms will be announced in coming weeks. The full range of Sesame Workshop tools for military families are available at their website.
[PHOTO: Sesame Workshop, Gil Vaknin]
UPDATE: Here's a list of where the rooms will be set up.
AL: Wetumpka, Det 2 1208th QM
AZ: Marine Corps Air Station Yuma
CA: ASYMCA in Alameda
CA: Army Reserve Center in Bell
CA: Camp Pendleton
CA: National Guard Family Readiness Center in Fresno
CA: Marine Corps Air Station Miramar
CA: Defense Distribution Deport in San Joquin
CO: Fort Carson
DC: Naval Station Anacostia
FL: Naval Air Station, Jacksonville
GA: Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany
GA: Fort Benning
ID: Idaho State Family Programs Office in Boise
IL: Naval Station Great Lakes
KS: Fort Riley
KY: Fort Campbell
MA: 1181st FFC in Wellesley
MD: Walter Reed Army Medical Center/Ft. Detrick
MI: Military Moms in Dearborn
NC: Fort Bragg (and two other locations TBD)
NJ: MacGuire Air Force Base
NY: Fort Drum
NY: Rochester Army Strong Community Center
NY: Samaritan Health Systems in Watertown
OK: Oklahoma National Guard Headquarters
SC: Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort
TX: ASYMCA El Paso at Fort Bliss
TX: Fort Hood
TX: Fort Sam HoustonWarrior and Family Support Center
TX: Army Strong Community Center in Laredo
WA: Fort Lewis
WA: ASYMCA in Oak Harbor
