Thursday, April 19, 2007

Organization provides scholarships to families of fallen Soldiers

Members of the Fort Belvoir community who have lost a loved one in serving in Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom have an underutilized resource available to them that can help surviving spouses and children with education costs.

“The Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund, Inc. was founded to provide emotional and financial support to our service members and their families affected by the recent conflicts overseas,” said Rebecca Campbell, founder and chief executive officer of the Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund, Inc.

The organization has been providing help to the children and spouses of fallen Soldiers in the form of college grants and financial assistance to families in need of help with housing, utilities, food and clothing since 2003, when Campbell was dealing with the deployment of her son and one of her nephews.

“One of my nephews - was serving in the Marines and was deployed to Afghanistan,” said Campbell. “Then our youngest son, David, enlisted in the Army in November 2001 after the attacks on 9/11. He deployed with other members of his unit, 82nd Airborne, on Feb. 13, 2003 to Baghdad. It was a very difficult time for us as well as all the other military families here back home. I had been mailing packages overseas to troops since 2001 and my husband and I decided that we wanted to help one or two military children that had lost their parent go to college.”

Thus the CFSRF was formed. Within two weeks the Campbells and arranged their first fundraising event, a Five Mile Yellow Ribbon Walk-a-thon.

“We raised some funds, but I could not find it in my heart to stop,” Campbell said. “We held more events and found the public to be very supportive of our military and their families.”

In April of 2004, Campbell filed the necessary papers to become a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. The paperwork was approved and the Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund was formed.

The CFSRF received its largest contribution last year when Clark Pinnacle held its third annual Clark Pinnacle Charity Golf Classic at Fort Belvoir. The funds that were raised at the golf tournament were specifically to benefit Fort Belvoir, and Clark Pinnacle donated $41,667 to the Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund.

“The funds that were raised by Clark Pinnacle are restricted to members from the Fort Belvoir Community,” said Campbell.

Other funds that CFSRF has raised are available for all eligible military families.

“Our programs are not limited to any one particular state, military base or community,” said Campbell. “We have other funds available and the applicants can be from anywhere as long as the fallen service member lost his or her life during or as a result of their service in OEF or OIF.”

According to the CFSRF web site, none of the organization’s members have been affected personally by the loss of a service member. They simply have a tremendous amount of respect for service men and women both of the present and past.

“Our dream is to be able to help make the last wishes of our service members come true - that their family members will achieve their educational pursuits and that their financial burdens will be lessened,” said Campbell.

So far 12 scholarships have been given away. The most recent scholarship was given away at a taping of The Montel Williams Show last week. For more information and for scholarship applications call (301) 865-6327 or visit the Web site at http://www.cfsrf.org.