{"id":8149,"date":"2023-04-26T15:29:36","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T15:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=8149"},"modified":"2023-04-27T20:36:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T20:36:46","slug":"military-youth-recognized-by-maryland-national-guard-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2023\/04\/26\/military-youth-recognized-by-maryland-national-guard-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Military Youth Recognized by Maryland National Guard Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sgt. Allen Griffith<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FORT MEADE, Md. – The adjutant general for Maryland signed the Month of the Military Child Proclamation at the Baron J. De Kalk Reserve Center, April 22, 2023, during the Roll, Walk, Run For Teen Wellness event organized by Blue Star Families of Baltimore and Chesapeake Region.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead, commander of the Maryland National Guard, asked members of the community to remember children\u2019s roles in strengthening the military family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe Maryland National Guard is thankful for the positive enthusiasm of the military children as we keep moving forward,\u201d said Birckhead. \u201cWe are committed to maintaining excellence in schools, youth services, and childcare to ensure that families always receive the best programming no matter where their next adventure takes them.\u201d

Community organizations hosted activities, a shoe giveaway, and provided food for participants at the U.S. Army Reserve 200th Military Police Command\u2019s facilities. Volunteers from Maryland National Guard Child Youth Program helped facilitate the event.

The event was the largest collaborative effort between the Maryland National Guard and the Army Reserves to date with over 200 participants. U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Lorna Mahlock, deputy director of cybersecurity for combat support for the National Security Agency, Maryland State Senator Dawn D. Gile for District 33 in Anne Arundel County, and Kathy Roth Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families, were also in attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Department of Defense observes April as the Month of the Military Child. Events are conducted throughout the month in order to recognize and celebrate the youngest members of our military families.

The event\u2019s theme was \u201cNational Guard Kids: Rising to the Challenge,\u201d in response to the obstacles faced by military teens such as family deployments, relocating to new duty stations every few years, isolation from peers, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

\u201cOne of the biggest challenges facing our military youth is connections,\u201d said Melvin Jackson, the director of family programs, 99th Readiness Division.

Jackson’s team focuses on activities and events that are designed to foster healthy connections and be beneficial to their military youth.

\u201cComing outdoors, being present with the sunshine, trees, and grass under your feet while laughing, talking, and exercising with other military youth will inevitably improve one’s well-being,\u201d said Dr. Andrea Daniels, family programs coordinator, 99th Readiness Division.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sgt. Allen Griffith FORT MEADE, Md. – The adjutant general for Maryland signed the Month of the Military Child Proclamation at the Baron J. De Kalk Reserve Center, April 22, 2023, during the Roll, Walk, Run For Teen Wellness event organized by Blue Star Families of Baltimore and Chesapeake Region. U.S. Army Brig. Gen.  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":8152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8149"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8156,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8149\/revisions\/8156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}