Contact:

Sara Westafer

Christian Grandparenting Network

719.313.9299

Project Coordinator

swestafer@dotheword.org

www.christiangrandparenting.com

Mayor Dubs July in Honor of the Christian Grandparenting Network

Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 15, 2008

Mayor Lionel Rivera of Colorado Springs declared July as Christian Grandparenting Network Appreciation Month in honor of the organization's commitment to serve the military children of Colorado Springs.

"The Christian Grandparenting Network (CGN) has spent the last six years developing programs catered to building relationships between grandparent and grandchild," said Cavin Harper, Executive Director of CGN. "This year, with numbers rising of children whose parents are continuing to serve in Iraq we saw the great need to focus on military children and connect them to their grandparents for a support system."

CGN began to meet this need through their first Military Kids GrandCamp (MKGC) last month. MKGC was a week-long residential camp held June 16-20 in Florissant and designed specifically for grandparents and their grandchildren who have a parent deployed to Iraq or another part of the world.

"We exist to encourage children like 8-year old Ashley," said Harper. Ashley's father was killed during the Baghdad invasion and now, several years later, her stepfatheris serving his third tour in Iraq and won't return until February.

Thousands of children see both parents deployed at the same time and face the adjustment and toil of living with relatives or substitute parents before their 13 th birthday. According to Research Magazine in 2006, over 470,000 children with deployed parents are age 1 and under. Over 400,000 are between age 6 and 11. And over 300,000 are between ages 12 and 18.

According to the Ft. Carson Regional Growth Plan,Colorado Springs and Ft.Carson are doing all they can to prepare for the 33,800 new military residents expected to arrive by 2011.

"I think it takes more than city planning to support children as they face transition, relocation and the absence of a parent or two," said Harper. "You need to hear the stories of kids like Ashley to see there's just not enough being done. CGN has recognized the needs of military children and we're striving to ease the pain they face, show them love, and give them hope. But we can't do it alone."

Harper invites Colorado Springs residents to sign a petition asking the Pike's Peak Area Council of Governments to include a plan supporting military children during the Ft.Carson expansion initiative. To sign, visit www.christiangrandparenting.net.