Articles Tagged "Military"

Helping Military Families

CBT Realtor® Kendra Gonzalez works hard guiding families in the Magic Valley to the homes of their dreams. Her time as a military spouse is never far from her mind, though, remembering the days when her husband and fellow Realtor®, Jesus Gonzalez, was deployed to Iraq, leaving the new mom alone and far from family. Fortunately for Kendra, she discovered the Service Member and Family Support Program through the Idaho National Guard.

The Family Readiness Group, or FRG, addresses physical, emotional, and financial support for spouses whose partners are deployed and for children who are missing their parent. They hold fun events for military families, assist with paperwork, conduct community outreach, work with mental health and crisis intervention professionals, and much, much more.

A volunteer for six years, Kendra attends monthly meetings, chaperones at military youth camps across Idaho, and helps plan and organize events for military families. She says, "Now that my husband is back from deployment, I want to be a beacon of hope and support for those wives that have a deployed husband."

She has enlisted the help of her husband, now a fellow volunteer, and recruited the rest of the Coldwell Banker Tomlinson team in the Twin Falls area to help at FRG's first Candy Corn Fall Carnival for service members and their families.

According to Sonya Nowland, Soldier and Family Readiness Specialist for the region, the carnival will be held on October first at the Twin Falls Amory and will feature chili, hotdogs, and lots of candy. Kids will be able to get their faces painted, play in a bounce house, and participate in fun games including a cake walk, a duck pond game, bean bag toss, and a photo booth. Costumes are welcomed but not required. The CBT team will be on hand to help with the games, serve food to the families, hand out candy, and assist wherever they can.

Of the organization, Sonya, who has been in her position for 19 years, explains that "all the services we provide are open to all branches of service. We also assist with veterans who are no longer wearing the uniform." 

For her part, Kendra sums it up this way: "Supporting FRG makes me feel happy. It fills my heart that I am giving back to the military."

To volunteer with FRG or to find out what you can do to help military families, reach out to Sonya at sonya.d.nowland.nfg@army.mil.

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