Children of servicemembers from around the Puget Sound got a chance to experience a deployment through the eyes of their parents at the Children’s Deployment Day Camp, in the Totem Recreation Hall, at the Naval Support Complex at Smokey Point, April 4.

This event, sponsored by the Naval Station Everett, Fleet and Family Support Center (FFSC), is in recognition of April as the Month of the Military Child. The goal of the Month is to serve as a positive outlet for military children who often experience a variety of emotions during a parent’s deployment.

“I think that this will help some kids feel closer to their parents,” said Amber Jackson, a civilian staff member of NAVSTA Everett. “We have some kids here whose parents are deployed, and doing the activities where they are actually making things to send to their parent, and doing the activities where they are actually making things to send their parent definitely gives them a certain closeness and a little bit more of an understanding.”

The day camp, starting at 9 a.m., began with the children being sworn into the oath of the military child by Cmdr. Donald Leingang, NAVSTA Everett executive officer. Throughout the day the children made arts and crafts, ran in a fun run and wrote letters to deployed parents.

The most exciting part of the day for the children was the deployment phase of the camp. Divided up into different ships, the children with Dixie cup hats and passports made their way to different “country stations,” each with a different activity.

“They are traveling to different countries,” said Stacie Bodenner, FFSC Staff, and director of the Day Camp. “One of our countries is how to use a fire extinguisher,” and we’ve given them little passports that they can stamp. The fire department brought their stickers, and they will get a stamp at each station, representing every country they visited on their deployment. We wanted to do something nice for our military kids.”

Retired Chief Enginemen Heinz Hickethier, with the Game Wardens of Vietnam, and his crew of fellow Northwest chapter members were at one stop of the deployment, dressed in camouflage to give the kids a tour of a patrol boat, explaining to them the responsibilities, and roles of each crewmembers station, as well as the vital mission of this riverine craft.

“We just want to give the children a sense of what happened,” said Hickethier. “It’s so they have some idea of what their parents go through.”

“(With this camp), they experience of what we feel,” said Army Sgt. Hank Tamen, a Bothell resident. “I am leaving in June for a two-year deployment, and they’re having a hard time with it. It’s going to give them a feeling of how we feel when we leave, and when we come back.”

At the end of the day, to the great surprise of the children, parents and volunteers from all over the Puget Sound had decorated Totem Hall for a homecoming party for the children, complete with balloons, snacks, and their parents and siblings waving, yelling, and holding huge “WELCOME HOME” signs.

As these children return home from their first deployments, military members and their families can rest assured that the next time they must leave, their little one will be ready.