Nonprofits Join Forces to Support Military Children

The death of a parent is never easy to deal with.

For military children, the chance of facing that situation is high, and if it does happen, they are often confused and scared, say military advocates.

A couple of weeks ago, Laura Herzog, founder of Honoring Our Fallen, a nonprofit dedicated to helping the families of fallen veterans, attended a service member’s funeral in Miramar. At the ceremony, the soldier’s 4-year-old child tugged at her shirt and asked, “How come my daddy won’t wake up?”

“He’s sleeping with the angels,” Herzog responded.

In that moment, she said, she knew something had to be done for such youngsters. The next day, Cherie Navarro, CEO of Military Children’s Charity Inc., a nonprofit that serves military children through toy donations, dropped two bags of toys at her doorstep for the children of that soldier.

“The family just cried when they saw the toys,” Herzog said. “And I told them, 'There are a ton of people like me, and they want to help you as much as they can.' ”

That event sealed the partnership between Honoring Our Fallen and Military Children's Charity (MCC), said Navarro. Now, the organizations are working together to bring birthday and holiday presents to the children of fallen troops every year until their 18th birthdays.

“The attention starts to wear off after the funeral,” Navarro said. “The point is to be there as a consistent reminder that we have not forgotten their sacrifice.”

Since March 2010, MCC has collected toys and games for all military children. Last Christmas, the organization said it collected a record 3,890 toys, which were distributed to California military bases such as the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos and the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.

For Easter, the organization made more than 380 baskets for the children.

The idea for the nonprofit came in late 2009 from Navarro's son Isaiah. As the child of a Marine, the 16-year-old knew exactly what military children go through and wanted to support them by organizing toy donations, she said.

As soon as he made the announcement in church, Navarro said, the congregation provided overwhelming support for the project.

“We thought it would be small and never anticipated it to be on a big scale,” she said. “When people saw the need and profound impact, it touched them so much that they wanted to contribute.”

Now, MCC is in its second year, and plans to work with Honoring Our Fallen to help children of fallen service members. Aside from yearly gifts, the organization is also looking to develop a teddy bear that would be given to children of fallen troops within 48 hours of notification of a parent’s death.

“We want to give them something comforting right away,” said Patrice Johnston, CFO of MCC.

Next month, Honoring Our Fallen is hosting a baby shower for the wife of a fallen Marine, and MCC will provide gifts for the expectant mother. Navarro and Herzog said monetary donations for the event and organizations could be made through their websites honoringourfallen.org and militarychildrenscharity.org.

Physical donations can be made at MCC’s receiving center at Orange County Windustrial, 1335 S. Allec St., Anaheim.

“Together we can benefit far more people than anyone can alone,” Herzog said.