Art Contest Recognizes Sacrifices of Military Children

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- School liaison officers at Joint Expeditionary Base (JEB) Little Creek - Fort Story and Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana partnered with Virginia Beach City Public Schools for the "Art of Being a Military Child," an art contest to recognize the sacrifices made by military children.

As part of the "Month of Military Child," events in Hampton Roads, a reception was held at Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach, April 10, to recognize the top elementary, middle and high school artists.

"We were looking for a way to involve as many people as possible. It started out as something that could transcend elementary, middle and high school, and everybody understands art and art solicits emotion," explained Debbie Patch, JEB Little Creek's school liaison officer.

Patch, a former teacher came up with the idea of the art contest and along with John Hammer, SLO at Oceana, presented it to art teachers in the city's schools. The contest was also supported by Lynnhaven Mall, which offered to display the pieces during April, the Month of the Military Child, as well as hosting the awards ceremony and reception.

Scenes drawn in pencil, pastels or crayons, ranged from Navy ships and submarines with hull numbers all-too-familiar to Hampton Roads military families, to happy scenes of homecomings, to messages of thanks to those willing to serve their countries.

Open to all kindergarten through 12th graders, the 158 drawings and paintings represented 21 of the 86 Virginia Beach schools. While entrants did not have to be military family members to enter, many of the young artists such as Gwyneth Landau, have a parent who is serving in the military.

Standing by her drawing, the nine-year-old explained the uniformed man she drew is her dad and the blond-haired girl he is hugging depicts herself.

"I drew it to show my dad leaving, when he's going on deployment. I drew the flag in the background to show we support the U.S. military," the fourth-grader explained about her artwork. "My dad's in the Navy and he's gone a lot," she added.

The evening kicked off with music from the Corporate Landing Middle School Choir and the color guard from the Navy's JROTC unit at Landstown High School, followed by guest speaker Commander, JEB Little Creek-Fort Story Capt. Frank Hughlett.

Noting that it has been 12 years since 9-11, "some of our children have known only war and it's important that we honor their sacrifice," said Hughlett.
Hughlett recognized the sacrifices made by his own daughter, Devanne, 22, who was in the audience.

Although fortunate enough to be able to attend her high school graduation, Hughlett shared that as he sat in the audience that day, he realized he had missed most of her first 17 years, because of his military career.

"We need to recognize the stress and the challenges military children have to face as they move from school to school, place to place. [They have to] start, stop, restart the school year," explained Hughlett.

He said events such as this one also bring those challenges to "the forefront of the community, so the community can help them."

During the event, military children also expressed their feelings about their parents' service with poetry readings. Allanah Evans, a sophomore at Ocean Lakes High School, read "I am...A military child," written by a high school senior and military family member living in Germany. Jazzmyne Jefferson, an eighth grader at Great Neck Middle School, read "Military Girl," written by a sixth grader at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. Both Jefferson and Evans are active in teen programs on base - Jefferson at JEB Fort Story and Evans at Oceana.

But the reading that elicited the most emotion from the audience was done by Taylor Spiewak, a senior at Bayside High School. "Lost in the Moment," her original poem about how her father MAC Doug Spiewak will miss her high school graduation and her 18th birthday this year because of deployment. The poem, which also praises her mom, earned the 17-year-old several awards through the PTA's Reflections contest.

Recognizing military children has important significance to Lt. Col. Karl Linderman, who along with Command Master Chief Andrew Thompson from JEB Little Creek-Fort Story and CMDCM Bill Smalts from NAS Oceana, presented awards and a Chili's Restaurant gift card to the top artists.

"As a service member, a soldier, a husband and father, I also have children who are in school right now and it's very important to me that we settle, as best as we can, in an area that supports military children, particularly from the academic standpoint. Virginia Beach public schools, and this area in general, are renowned for how well they integrate our military children," said Linderman.

Linderman, commander of the Army's 11th Transportation Battalion at Fort Story, is the father of a daughter and son, who both attend John B. Dey Elementary School in Virginia Beach.

Hughlett also praised the school system, saying "Virginia Beach has done a phenomenal job through their counselors, their school teachers, their administrators, in recognizing that and helping them... A lot of people don't recognize the challenges these children face. With 23,000 military children [in their district] Virginia Beach has embraced this wholeheartedly."

The school liaison officers were really pleased with the number of entries for the first year of the contest. Each of the 158 pieces were photographed and set to a slide show which played during the reception. "We intend to make it an annual thing," said Patch.

Patch explained select pieces will also be submitted to the Military Child Education Coalition, for their national contest. The coalition also uses children's artwork in many different mediums, such as on the website, calendars and at their annual conference.

For more news from Naval Air Station Oceana, visit www.navy.mil/local/oceana/.