Benefit Dinner for a Good Cause

The Hammonton Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1026 Egg Harbor Rd Hammonton, NJ is hosting a benefit Dinner for

Carly's RSD Treatment Fund

Saturday September 24, 2005 2pm to 6pm $10.00 per person Ravioli and Meatball Dinner Silent Auction Door Prizes Raffles

Carly Braun is the Daughter of SMSgt Michael Braun of the 177th FW. And

the Niece of SMSgt Frank Braun also of the 177th FW.

Carly has a potentially and progressively crippling disease know as RSD. After years of medications and therapy, her only remaining option is to have a medical procedure, which Insurance will not cover. To have this treatment Carly must fly to Germany. Estimated price tag is $30,000.00.

See any of the Phase Docks Personnel x6144 for tickets and Information

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT A Co 250th MAIL

Mrs. Needham: Please inform the FRG that the mail service has established

guidelines for our future mail.

The last day to send packages to soldiers>here should be 1 September 2005. Letters should be 1 October 2005. Mail>received after these dates may be returned to sender or will forward to >Home>Armory for processing.

I would cut off packages A.S.A.P. to ensure delivery. Letters should be good until October 5th based on past travel time to here. Hopefully we will see you all on schedule.

Top G Howard R. Gaetjens

A Co 2 50th Sig Bn1SG, SC, NJARNG

Help Needed for National Guard Family

I am sad to announce that we recently lost a soldier from the 117th Cavalry to a motorcycle accident. They family will be dealing with a myriad of changes and must still maintain their daily functioning. I am asking for volunteers to make dinners that can be stored in a freezer so that this family does not have to worry about making dinner. My hope is that we will be able to make enough meals between al of us that they can go for a month without worrying about cooking during this time. If you are willing to make a dish for me to bring to them, please contact myself or Michele at the Woodbury FAC and let us know what you will be making (I don't want them to have to ea lasagna everday for a month). Any help is greatly appreciated. If you are unable to prepare something and would like to make a donation in the form of a catered meal or gift card, please let us know as well. The family lives in Bridgeton, New Jersey and I will be taking meal to them on a weekly basis. Thank you again for all you do for our soldiers and each other!

Recovering from PTSD Workshop

For Families of Veterans, Veterans, and Supportive Professionals

"The War at Home: Recovering from PTSD -
the Value of Mutual Help Groups for Families of Combat Vets & for Vets"

a free presentation by

Patience Mason

Author & Writer on Living with, and Recovery from, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Saturday, August 27, 2005
10:30 am – 12 noon

at the Vietnam Era Educational Center
adjacent to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial
Garden State Parkway Exit 116, in Holmdel, NJ (www.njvvmf.org)
(Follow the brown directional signs to the “Memorial)


Pre-Registration by Phone is Required
To register, or for more information, phone the N.J. Self-Help Group Clearinghouse at
1-800-367-6274 or 1-800-FOR-M.A.S.H.(Mutual Aid Self-Help) – good from anywhere within NJ.


Optional Follow-up Meeting on Support Group Development: Noon – 1 pm
For those interested in joining with others to help start a local, member-run, support group
in their area of NJ for either families of vets with PTSD or a group just for vets with PTSD.



About the Presenter
Patience Mason is author of the book, Recovering From the War: a Guide for All Veterans, Family Members, Friends, and Therapists, which was originally published as Recovering From the War: a Women’s Guide to Helping Your Vietnam Vet (Viking Penguin, 1990). Much of Ms. Mason's expertise comes from her years of experience as the wife of Robert Mason, who went to Vietnam with the 1st Cav in 1965 and returned a year later "with PTSD, which didn't have a name and wasn't supposed to exist." Subsequently she "lived with undiagnosed and untreated PTSD until 1980, when it got a name." Ms. Mason has spoken before various audiences from the "Today Show," to in-service trainings for VA professionals, and presentations she has given before veteran/family groups. She was editor and publisher, for 7 years, of The Post-Traumatic Gazette (sample issues of the Gazette, and other literature she has written, to include formats for support groups, is available at www.patiencepress.com).


co-sponsored by

New Jersey Self-Help Group Clearinghouse
Saint Clare’s Health Services
a non-profit social service agency helping people to find and form mutual aid self-help groups
www.njgroups.org

Veteran Families & Friends of the Greater Ocean County Area
a self-help mutual aid group being started for loved ones of combat vets
http://groups.msn.com/aftermathofwarcopingwithPTSDtoo

Family Support Career Fair

New Jersey Army National Guard
B Company 2nd Battalion 113th Infantry
Family Readiness Group
120 Roseville Ave., Newark NJ 07107
973-648-3428 Phone



Attention Business Owners:

The Family Readiness Group would like to invite you to our Family Support Career Fair so you may recruit, screen and hire qualified candidates for any positions you may have available. Our Citizen Soldiers have the attributes and qualities that employers need to be successful in today’s workplace. Attention to detail and mission accomplishment are the hallmarks of our trade. We encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to see what our team has to offer. Tables are provided free of charge, however any donation to the Family Readiness Group is greatly appreciated.

DATE: 9-24-2005 TIME; 10AM -1PM
Place: Newark Armory
120 Roseville Ave.
Newark, NJ 07107
Contact: SGT BEATTY AT 973-648-3428 OR
QUEEN ALEXANDER AT 908-247-6177

We would like to thank you in advance for your participation in this event.

Sincerely,

President QUEEN ALEXANDER
B Company Family Readiness Group

Workshops from the Learning Resource Center and EIRC

The below listed workshops are open to all NJ residents and educators. Please contact Lois if you are interested in attending at the numbers listed.


Workshops
Evening Series

A Positive Approach to Managing Challenging Behavior:
A Two Part Evening Series

This workshop series will provide detailed information about a positive approach for understanding and addressing the needs of students with disabilities who demonstrate challenging behaviors.

In Part I of this series, educators and parents will learn the following:

• An understanding of the principles and practices of positive behavior support;
• Approach to collecting and analyzing key information;
• Developing hypotheses; and
• Developing intervention plans.

In Part II of this series, educators and parents will receive an introduction to various positive intervention approaches and strategies which will include the following:

• Social stories;
• Communication strategies;
• Scheduling; and
• Social skills.

It is recommended that participants attend both sessions. However, single session registrations will be accepted.

Audience: Parents, special and general education teachers, child study team members, related services personnel, paraprofessionals, grades K-6.

Date: Tuesdays: Nov. 8, 2005 and Nov. 15, 2005
(a two-part workshop)
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Fee: $5.00 per session
To register call: Lois Wolk, 856-582-7000 x 163
Reg. Deadline: Nov., 1, 2005 or when filled.



Creating a “Make Sense” IEP Workshop

Bonni Rubin-Sugarman, Director of Special Services, Haddonfield, New Jersey, will present an organized approach to creating a coherent, user-friendly IEP which addresses the child’s individual needs, supports access to the general education curriculum, and facilitates family / CST member collaboration.

Audience: CST members, educators, family members, and administrators

Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Fee: $15.00 includes materials and refreshments

To register, call 732-613-0400.
Please make checks payable to: NJ Coalition for Inclusive Education

Military Spouse Job Search

Military Spouse JobSearch is designed to enhance the employment opportunities for spouses of US Military members with employers committed to hiring military spouses and to connect employers with a talented, global, diverse workforce.
http://www.militaryspousejobsearch.org/msjs/app

Video for You to Watch

This was made by some of our own, I hope everyone is able to open it from the site and watch it.

Welcome Home Forever.wmv (application/octet-stream)

Army Implementing Virtual Family Readiness

Army Implementing Virtual Family Readiness

GroupBy Margaret McKenzieAugust 8, 2005ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Army News Service, Aug. 8, 2005) -- The Army will start a program on the World Wide Web Oct. 1 to support and improve how information is passed to families when Soldiers are deployed.“The virtual Family Readiness Group is designed to replicate the major components of FRGs but in a virtual context,” said Jay M. Burcham, chief of Deployment and Mobilization Readiness Division for the Family Programs Directorate at the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center, Alexandria, Va.“This Web System is not just a Web site. Soldiers down range in Iraq, Korea or wherever they are deployed will be able to communicate with families around the world by logging into this system. The virtual Family Readiness Group Web system will use technology to move today’s FRGs into the 21st Century to meet the demands of the Army’s Expeditionary Force.”The initiative began in June 2004 when CFSC in support of the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea created a virtual FRG to reach out to families of Soldiers who would be deployed.Most Soldiers deploy as individual replacements to Korea, which basically is a stable environment and communication with family members is routine, Burcham said. Prior to the vFRG, the families need for support was addressed by the "waiting families" program that Army Community Service operates. Families also received support from their previous unit’s physical FRG.With the War on Terrorism things changed though. Soldiers were being deployed from Korea to Iraq making communication with families difficult. Adding to that, families were reading and seeing stories on the news of bombs going off in areas where their Soldiers were located.“To ease the added stress placed on Soldier’s families, the 2nd Infantry Division provided up-to-date command information as well as the capability to download photos, send newsletters and organize families by location and unit,” Burcham said. “This was a new concept to take the physical FRGs and turn them into a virtual context.”The development and fielding of the vFRG for Korea and Iraq was completed in five weeks by DefenseWeb Technologies, Inc., San Diego, Calif.“The overall purpose of the vFRG supporting Soldiers deploying to Korea and Iraq was to provide a Web portal for official and unofficial information between the brigade, Soldiers, and families” said Tonya Bowers, Army program manager at DefenseWeb Technologies.”The brigade now had the means to communicate with the families of deployed Soldiers, Bowers added. Follow-on development built functions to automate the capabilities of today’s physical FRGs.These capabilities include instant messaging, forums and discussion groups, post cards, and file and document sharing.The final phase of the program broadens what was developed for the 2nd Infantry Division and provides training, outreach and support across all three components of the Army, active, Guard and Reserve.When released for use by units it will feature a unit vFRG locator, a kids and teens area, a phone tree organization chart, in case of emergency family plans, blogs, a training tracker and metrics for the unit commander to determine the state of family readiness, FRG leader forums content, and more.The site will also provide a single location for users to obtain news and updates relating to FRGs and their unit. Users will be able to make updates to the phone tree and e-mail distribution list for rear detachment commanders and FRG leaders to use for mass communication to Soldiers and families.Users of the site must first register at www.armyfrg.org and be authenticated by command level administrators. This feature is very important to unit commanders concerned with maintaining Operational Security of the information that they provide to families Burcham said.“After they have been authenticated, users can go into the system, join their unit’s virtual FRG, and update the information in their registration file especially if they are changing duty stations” Bowers said.“There are many benefits to using the vFRG system”, Burcham added. “Members of the Army Reserve and the National Guard see this as an answer to the communications issues they have to deal with because they are geographically dispersed. Families of mobilized Individual Ready Reservists will be able to join the vFRG of the unit their Soldier is deployed with.”Members of the National Guard emphasize that they see this as a great way to enhance family readiness, Burcham added. He said it gives them the capability to maintain an FRG and communicate with their FRG members on a year round basis, which frequently is only organized during deployments.“This vFRG allows them to stay organized throughout the year with a known place where people can login and communicate without the worry and expense of bringing families into Reserve or Guard headquarters which could be 100 miles away,” Burcham said.“It is not designed to replace the existing physical FRG, but to enhance them,” Burcham said.To support the upcoming start of the system, a waiting list area where units can sign up to establish a virtual FRG has been added to www.armyfrg.org.For more information e-mail armyvirtualfrg@cfsc.army.mil.(Editor’s note: Margaret McKenzie writes for the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center Public Affairs.)

Parent's Place of Gloucester County

The Educational Information & Resource Center (EIRC) is holding a parenting workshop entitled "Dealing with Children's Feelings" this Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30p.m. at 606 Delsea Drive in Sewell, New Jersey. For those of you with delpoyed spouses, this may be a good source for information on how to handle the emotion your children are showing while your soldier is deployed. The site in Gloucester County offers a different course each month. The following are some other upcoming courses:

September 14, 2005 Handling Biting

October 12, 2005 Bullying

November 16, 2005 Infant Attachments

December 7, 2005 Puppets

January 18, 2006 Kitchen Gadgets

February 15, 2006 What is Making You Really Angry

March 14, 2006 Positive Discipline

April 12, 2006 Power Struggles

May 18, 2006 What's Wrong with Kids Today

June 7, 2006 Supporting Children's Learning at Home

For more information or to reqister for a class, please call EIRC at 856-582-7000 extension 133.

Teaching Positions and School Aides

If you live near Lindenwold, Clayton or Gloucester City and would be interested in a part time job working in the schools, please contact Heather Altman at 856-582-7000 extension 133 for more information. We are looking for PT certified teachers as well as educational aides and students to participate and work in a new after school program.

Neil Diamond Tickets

We still have a few free tickets available to the concert this Saturday so please call for them if you are interested! In addition, I have some free $5.00 gift cards to Hollywood Video if you are interested in a stack for your FRG members or yourself, courtesy of Liberty USO in Philadelphia.