FORT EUSTIS, Va. –
Christian Leonard-Brown, a third grade student at General Stanford Elementary School on post, recently began an initiative to help children in the earthquake-devastated country of Haiti.
Christian was disturbed from watching a recent news segment about the people of Haiti. They are still suffering from the effects of the earthquake which decimated most of the country two years ago. Christian, from Joseph Hudson's class, then decided to do something to help the people of Haiti and started talking about it.
Kathy Gallagher, General Stanford's Instructional Technology coach, and her T.V. studio crew took the initiative and "hit the ground running" to materialize Christian's idea to collect shoes for Haiti. Ms. Gallagher even put together a very artistic and clever display of a giant shoe which caught everyone's attention.
As a result, over one hundred pairs of shoes were collected. Theresa Beander, General Stanford's administrative secretary, delivered the items donated to a local organization. This organization, moved by the young student's initiative, decided to sponsor Christian's trip to Haiti this March to personally deliver the shoes.
Military kids are a special kind of people, said Ruth Hill Useem, an American sociologist and anthropologist, when she classified military kids as Third Culture Kids. She said it is because they come in contact with many different cultures through their parents' assignments.
Military kids, like other TCKs, may have difficulty answering the simple question, "Where are you from?" However, studies have shown that because of their diverse experiences, military kids are more attuned and more sensitive to world problems than some of their peers.
Kids, like this... like Christian, sometimes have a global consciousness and an unparalleled world awareness that many would desire.