Bay NEWS 9 behind the scenes story – Everyday Heroes

We posted a story on Tuesday about the Bay NEWS 9 interview that ran on Monday August 24th, 2009.  That story featured Lisa Berg of OPERATION Hug-A-Hero, however she was not the main focus of the interview.  The real stars of the interview are OUR Everyday Heroes. In this case it was the Dorr Family and the Creaser Family.  Mrs Dorr was kind enough to open her home and both shared their experience with us.  Families of our deployed military members go through a lot of hardships. By listening to their stories, it helps all of us understand what its like to be a military spouse wearing the hat of mommy and daddy.  We appreciate both families sharing their stories with us.

Here is the behind the scenes as written by Lisa Berg – Executive Director:

“Thank you to the Dorr Family and the Creaser Family for taking time out of their busy schedules to interview with Bay News 9! We had a great time interviewing with them this past Monday. This is a local station that has great local coverage of the Tampa Bay communities. We are honored that they chose us to feature in their “Everyday Heroes” segment. The Everyday Heroes are the military families that proudly serve our country and their families that often move to new, strange places and have to do it alone while a parent is deployed. The cameraman, Marty came in to a houseful of kids running around. Half of the kids there do not have daddy home right now. Mrs Jackie Dorr was generous enough to open her beautiful home to us and hasn’t seen her husband since March. Her little girl Paisley, 10 months, loves her Hug-A-Hero Doll and doesn’t seem to go anywhere without him! Mrs Megan Creaser came to the interview as well, so we could feature her to allow the public to help donate to allow her daughter, Allaina to receive her own Hug-A-Hero Doll through our program. Little Allaina was born 9 months ago and her daddy had to leave on his deployment just 4 weeks after her birth. Thank you to the Creasers for taking time out to be featured on this piece! The other children running around happen to be my own twins who love their dolls too, but they also have Daddy home right now. They were “extras”. This piece will air next Monday, August 24th hourly starting at 5:53 am. We’re excited to have been given this chance to help us spread awareness and hopefully receive donations from the great community of Tampa Bay.

Related Post:

Operation Hug-A-Hero Executive Director Featured on Tampa Bay NEWS 9 -August 24, 2009

Executive Director Featured on Bay NEWS 9 – Tampa FL

Lisa Berg, our  Executive Director at Operation Hug-A-Hero was featured on Tampa’s Bay News 9, on a segment called “Local Community Hero”. The feature ran several times during the day on Monday August 24th 2009 in the Tamp bay Area.  At present we don’t have a copy of the footage but if you know someone who taped it we sure would love a copy to put on our site. In the meantime, you can read the excerpt of the interview over at Bay News 9 web site, every day hero section.

Be sure to check back later in the week as we post a behind the scenes article that details the set-up for this interview with Bay 9 News, Even better, if you have not done so, please sign up for our news letter on our home page.  Just look for the Box in the Upper Right Corner that looks like this one below.

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Bay NEWS 9 behind the scenes story – Every Day Hero’s

Deployment Tip # 2 – Home Music Videos

This is the second deployment my boys are going through. Like the first time, dad missed all 3 of their birthdays. So, the boys and I get together and make daddy a goodie bag with an invitation to a recap birthday when he gets home. Every week we do a movie/game night to celebrate another week down. Since music is a great way to help cope with hard times, I let my boys pick out songs they like and we make home made music videos to send to daddy. Our biggest treat so far was the time we sat down and thought of care package themes, then made a calendar of it. My favorite was the “You dropped Your Pocket” care package thought up by my middle son who will be 5 soon. Him and his dad would always joke and say “you dropped your pocket” so, the boys drew up a design and then helped me sew a pocket pillow for daddy. Now he takes it on every convoy and sleeps with it at night. All this is an alternative to the traditional but, it makes them feel good to do things for daddy and then see the pictures or hear a simple thank you from daddy over the phone. They have pride in what they do and it brings out creativity. So far this has helped them better than anything from the 1st deployment. I have an open suggestion box for them to let me know what they want to do plus, I let them use my IM and web cam to let daddy know what to expect for R&R and home coming. Kids are often forced to grow up faster during times like this but, if it’s done in a positive way such as letting them make choices like this, it’s a better memory for them.

Karrie

Grafenwoehr, Germany

Deployment Tip #1 – Read Books with Daddy

My husband’s first deployment was 15 months and I wanted our little girl to know his voice. She loves books so I had him read all of her books on a tape recorder and every night before she went to bed she would play the tape and “read” books with Daddy. It really seemed to help.

Amanda, Ft Riley