Whirlwinds

Sometimes you see the whirlwind coming; Sometimes you don't.

I will be extending our break until my own personal whirlwind dies down. I still welcome anyone to email me or call me with news, concerns or just a need to make contact with another millitary family person.

Blessings to you and your families.

Kim Coreson

Summer Break

The Peninsula's Yellow Ribbon Club is taking a break for the summer. We will resume our meetings in August. I will be in touch with you via this site and email to let you know what our fall shedule will be!

MySpace Comments MySpace Layouts

Lynn & her son Chris

April Meeting

Hello everyone!


Our April meeting will be held on April 10th.

New Frontier VoTech
(Red Diamond Center)
7:00 pm

We are trying to keep the schedule at every second Thursday of the month.

A Letter of Appreciation

In the last year our club has given gift baskets to retruning soldiers, whether they return just for R&R in the middle of a deployment, or if they are coming off of a deployment.

One day Carol Keller received a donation with the following letter:

Dear Ms. Keller,

I called and spoke to you a few days ago in refernce to giving you a
donation to your gift baskets for returning military personnel.
Years ago in 1970 as a young Marine off shore of Viet Nam on a helicopter
carrier, I received a surprise gift box twice from some volunteer organization
from my home state of Ohio.

This was a total surprise and much welcomed goodies from home and most
espically it let me know we weren't forgotten.

Regrettably at that time I didn't have the maturity or decency to respond
to the kind ladies and say thank you. To this day when I think of it, I am
ashamed I didn't respond to people who showed thy cared and say a simple thank
you.

Enclosed is a check to support your effort. I'll leave it to you to spend as you see fit and say thank you for what you're doing for our wonderful
troops.

Kind Regards
G.D.
Soldotna, Alaska

March Meeting Scheduled

Hey Folks !

Our last few meetings have been wonderful. I have really enjoyed getting to know the new people that have been coming.

Our March meeting will be at the same place, same time.

New Frontier VoTech
Red Diamond Center
March 13th
7:00pm


See you there!


Kim Coreson

New Frontier Vo-Tech Meeting Place

I am really enjoying the facilty at New Frontier Vo-Tech. Thank you so much Judi for providing us such a nice place to meet.

Last night we had a very good showing. Lots of newcomers. I'm looking forward to this coming year and all the friends we will be able to network with.

My son, Jacob Coreson, came to our meeting and talked about his tour of duty in Iraq. He did a good job of explaining things and encouraging the families. Some of it was hard to hear for our new members. That's the kind of stuff we have to learn to come to grips with. I have no answers for that kind of thing... just to say I'm here in your same shoes. I guess we'll either figure out how to cope with this alone or together. I pick together.

NEXT MEETING:

February 7th, 7:00pm New Frontier Vo-Tech

Hope to see you there! And bring a friend who has family in active duty military, any branch.

Best Meeting YET!

In my opinion, we had our best meeting yet on November 8th.

We had some new attenders: the Grandmother, Mother and sis of a deploying service member, as well as the Mom and Dad of another deploying service member. Most of our time was spent getting to know oneanother. What neat people!

We have decided to meet at the New Frontier Votech school in the Red Diamond Center. We will not meet in December, but we will resume our meetings on the second Thursday in January.

Anyone who has a deployed, deploying or deployable family member is encouraged to meet with us. Invite a friend, if you know someone who meets that description.

God Bless you and your loved ones this holiday season!

Kim Coreson

November Meeting

You are invited to our monthly Peninsula's Yellow Ribbon Club meeting.

We will be getting the last details together on the "Welcome Home" baskets for the returning guard members, as well as discussing our goals and mission for the upcoming year.

Please attend if you can and bring a friend who has a family member in the service!

November 8th
7:00pm
Bear's Den
(not a dinner... we're just meeting!)

November Meeting

You are invited to our monthly Peninsula's Yellow Ribbon Club meeting.

We will be getting the last details together on the "Welcome Home" baskets for the returning guard members, as well as discussing our goals and mission for the upcoming year.

Please attend if you can and bring a friend who has a family member in the service!

November 8th
7:00pm
Bear's Den
(not a dinner... we're just meeting!)

Web Class

Our web class was wonderful!!

If you missed it, I will be teaching a "civilian" version at community schools later this winter or early spring. I will let you know when we have the date nailed down.

Next meeting will be 7:00pm at the Bear's Den on November 8th.

See you there!


Kim

New Date for WEB SITE CLASS

We will be holding our class on Thursday, September 13th at New Frontier Vo-Tech, located in the Red Diamond Center, 43335 K-Beach Road Suite 14. Class will be held at 7:00pm.

There are only 20 spots available, so sign up early!

If you like, bring pictures on a disk, CD, DVD or removeable drive.

To sign up, call or email Kim Coreson. 262-5223 or kimcoreson@yahoo.com.

August Meeting

Updated information on our web log training class:

The facility we will be using for the training is not secure yet. I'm still awaiting final word for the go-ahead. As soon as that happens, I will have Kay email everyone and I will get Public Service Announcements (PSAs) out on the radio stations and in the Clarion.

Keep your eyes peeled!

Kim

CLASS AUGUST 16th at 7:00 pm: Make Your Own Free / Easy Web Page to Keep in Touch With Your Service Member!

Keeping it touch with our loved ones is so very important. We are fortunate to have the technology to be able to have such instant access to them!

We are going to have an internet web log training class at the New Frontier Vocational-Technical Center, located at 43335 K-Beach Road Suite 14 (Red Diamond Center) just outside of Soldotna. It will be held at 7:00pm.

Having a website that they can access at any time, gives them even more access to us. In addition, we can post information about our loved one in the service so that other family members can log on and see how they are doing.

For my family, this has been a wonderful way for my son's friends here at home to keep up with what is going on with Jacob. An additional bonus has been that my son's buddies at his base even log on to see what's up. It has been a connection with them to back home and what family is all about, even if it isn't their own.

There is limited space available. We will take only the first 25 people to sign up. It's free and it's for family of the deployed, deploying or deployable.

Call Kim at 262-5223 to reserve your spot! Or email me at kimcoreson@yahoo.com.

July Meeting

We will be meeting Thrusday evening, July 12th at 7:00pm at the Soldotna High School teacher's lounge... or front lawn, if weather permits!

See you there!

Basket Making Party

We had a basket making party to make wecome-home baskets for retruning soldiers. I wasn't able to make it, but several from the club did. It was reported to have been a lot of fun, and several baskets were made in preparation for those coming home that we don't even know about yet. What a good idea!

June Meeting Information!!

Hello there. It feels like a year since we last met. Isn't it amazing how full life gets so quickly?

Horray to Jan for getting the word out to the reader board businesses! I have heard so much around the community about them. And most importantly, what a blessing it is to the service members when they come home and know that we love them and that we are so very proud of them.

Our next meeting is Thursday, June 14th at 7:00 pm. FLAG DAY!! :)

We will be meeting at Soldotna High School in the Teacher's Lounge. If you need directions, please call me at 398-0035.

I look forward to seeing you!

Kim Coreson

THE MARINE

THE MARINE

We all came together,
Both young and old
To fight for our freedom,
To stand and be bold.

In the midst of all evil,
We stand our ground,
And we protect our country
From all terror around.

Peace and not war,
Is what some people say.
But I'll give my life,
So you can live the American way.

I give you the right
To talk of your peace.
To stand in your groups,
and protest in our streets.

But still I fight on,
I don't bitch, I don't whine.
I'm just one of the people
Who is doing your time.

I'm harder than nails,
Stronger than any machine.
I'm the immortal soldier,
I'm a U.S. MARINE!

So stand in my shoes,
And leave from your home.
Fight for the people who hate you,
With the protests they've shown.

Fight for the stranger,
Fight for the young.
So they all may have,
The greatest freedom you've won.

Fight for the sick,
Fight for the poor
Fight for the cripple,
Who lives next door.

But when your time comes,
Do what I've done.
For if you stand up for freedom,
You'll stand when the fight's done.

By: Corporal Aaron M. Gilbert, US Marine Corps

USS SAIPAN, PERSIAN GULF



March 23, 2003

Hey Dad,
Do me a favor and label this "The Marine" and send it to everybody on your email list.
Even leave this letter in it. I want this rolling all over the US ; I want every home reading it.
Every eye seeing it. And every heart to feel it. So can you please send this for me?
I would but my email time isn't that long and I don't have much time anyway.

You know what Dad? I wondered what it would be like to truly understand what JFK said in His inaugural speech. "When the time comes to lay down my life for my country, I do not cower from this responsibility. I welcome it."

Well, now I know. And I do. Dad, I welcome the opportunity to do what I do. Even though I have left behind a beautiful wife, and I will miss the birth of our first born child, I would do it 70 times over to fight for the place that God has made for my home. I love you all and I miss you very much. I wish I could be there when Sandi has our baby, but tell her that I love her, and Lord willing, I will be coming home soon.

Give Mom a great big hug from me and give one to yourself too.

Aaron

The Red, White and Blue Program Recesses With a Work Day

You can hardly call it a whole day's worth of work! About 25 people showed up at the City of Soldotna's Maintenance Building to help assemble and load boxes to get them ready for mailing on Wednesday. The whole process, which was expected to last 3 hours, took only just over one hour. The only person who probably worked on it all day long was Mayor Carey, who has put in countelss hours on this wonderful Red, White and Blue Program.

The Young Marines were there with their leader, Carol Laskey. There were some from the Peninsula's Yellow Ribbon Club, Mayor Carey was there and other families of service members.

Personally, I did not know where the building was and I gave myself a nice, self-guided tour of the north part of Soldotna Proper... When I arrived, the work was nearly all done. I was very disappointed that my uncanny skill of getting lost showed up on this very important day.

I was honored to meet Matthew and Zori Habermann for the first time. A very nice young couple. I will be keeping them in my prayers and look forward to getting to know Zori better as she will be attending our meetings.

Remember our next meeting will be at The Bear's Den at 7:00pm on Thursday, May 10th.

See you there!


Kim Coreson

Many Hands Make Light The Work

May 7th we have been invited to help Mayor Carey's Red, White and Blue Program:

_______________________________

Dear Kim:

We are going to package our pallets of supplies this coming Monday (May 7th) from 5-8 PM at the City Maintenance Shop behind the King Salmon.

Do you have any members that might be able to help?

We are also in need of a truck to hold all the packages until Wednesday morning when the post office is ready to process them.

Thanks, please let me know.


Dave Carey, Mayor

________________________

If you have a place to hold packages, please call Mayor Carey directly at Soldotna City Hall 262-9107.

As you know, one of our main goals is to assist in area efforts to support the troops whenever and wherever we can. If you are able to help, I'd love to see you there!

I am going to give a short announcement at the beginning of the May 9th City of Kenai Chamber of Commerce meeting to discuss The Peninsula's Yellow Ribbon Club, the mission statement and how Chamber Members can help us.

I was asked to speak at Soldotna Rotary at the May 10th meeting. Soldotna Rotary is energetically behind our efforts and I'm finding much support and encouragement from them.

What I'm hoping for is to find more families who would feel like they would like to be a part of our group. They may have no idea we even exist. It will take some time to get the word out. Another outcome I am looking forward to is personal or business interest in donations for care packages, welcome home gifts, etc.


God Bless America,


Kim Coreson

Note from Zori Habermann's mother

Zori & Matt drove down Sunday afternoon and were awed by the reader boards! They will be out today to take pictures of them! They were amazed at the generous gifts in his welcome home basket. Thanks to all the behind the scenes people who made it happen.

Marine Lance Corporal Matt Habermann's Return to the Kenai Peninsula

I just got word from Matt Habermann's mother-in-law that he will be flying into Anchorage on the 28th and driving down that evening to the Peninsula.


Our Welcome Home Committee will be getting the basket ready for him and alerting area business owners who have reader boards. We want to welcome him home as an entire community without making his transition stressful with too many surprises or events to attend.

As a community, we all thank Matt from the depths of our hearts for his serivce. May his rest be rejuvinating and may he find nutrition for his soul during this break.

April 12th Meeting

The meeting tonight was wonderful! What a group of wonderful, talented, determined people we have. We already have a Service Member who we are going to have the honor of welcoming home! Marine Lance Corporal Matt Habermann. We left the meeting with a mission to get together a meaningful, personal "welcome home" ready for his return on April 30th.

Our next meeting is scheduled May 10th at the Bear's Den Restaurant at 7:00pm. If you missed this last one and you have a family memeber in one of the services who is deployed, deploying or deployable, we would love to have you. You are not required to order a meal to attend. We just sat around and had tea, soda, water... and some people ordered to go at the end of the meeting. It's all good!

Do you have or know of a Service Member returning home? Please let us know!

Would you like to help us provide a meaningful, personal "welcome home" to a returning service member? We would love to hear from you as well. We are looking for individuals or businesses that would like to donate items, services or money to help us provide a personal welcome home for all of our area Service Members.

Some ideas are:

Businesses:

Welcome home signage on your reader boards
Donate items or services specific to your business that would facilitate the transition from military life into civilian life and family life
Donate gift certificates
Donate items or services specific to your business to raffle as a fund-raiser

Individuals:

Donate a skill or hobby product as a gift
Donate money to pay for various welcome home banners, etc.
Donate items to raffle as a fund-raiser

Be creative!! Think of something that we didn't think of! I dare ya!

Remember, a soldier's return isn't only about the party and balloons the week they get back. There can be a long adjustment that takes a more practical approach. Time away for the wife and husband to be alone together. Round-trip tickets to Anchorage for the family or husband and wife. Spa treatments or a relaxing massage. Hotel reservations for a peaceful get away.


Email me if you have any questions or want to provide something for our project.

Kim Coreson
kimcoreson@yahoo.com

Suday Paper Article - Front Page

Click here to see the article printed on the front page of the Peninsula Clarion on Sunday, April 8th.

I would like to add some pertinant information and make one correction.

First - the correction. The article stated:

"This would establish a venue where the husbands, wives, parents, children and other family and friends or those serving in the military could come together."

This is not the case. Our group is for the families of those deployed, deploying or deployable. It is not for the friends. Our friends are very important to us, but once the family members become strengthened, then they can turn around and support the friends.

Second - The article mentioned our meeting at the Bear's Den. I would have liked for them to specify that we have not been required to purchase a meal in exchange for the meeting place.

Third - To elaborate just a bit on a portion of the article, given that our second purpose is to assist area efforts already underway, we are going to compile a list of those in the community that are making large or small contributions of time, money and effort to assisting the deployed or family members left here.

I'm eager to see us help them out in any way possible and to be able to locate resources in our community in the time of need for a family that is home without their loved one.

See you at the Bears Den, April 12th, 7:00 pm. Beverages availiable to purchase. Again: You are not required to buy a meal in exchange for the meeting place.

Kim Coreson

APRIL 12th Meeting - WELCOME HOME

The topic of our April 12th meeting will be:

WELCOME HOME!

WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOUR RETURNING SOLDIER

______________________________

Come with ideas about what we can do for your loved one and other returning soldiers.

Also, we are gathering a list of contact information so that we can let everyone know about upcoming meetings and activities. Let someone who has deploying, deployed or deployable family members know about it and bring them along!

.

See you there!

Kim Coreson

Our Next Meeting --- Thursday April 12

Our name is now officially "The Peninsula's Yellow Ribbon Club."

.

Our purpose is to:
.
1) create a causal, local network of families with deployed, deploying or deployable family in all branches of the military
2) unify efforts that are already underway to assist families here or deployed family members

.

We will be having meetings on the second Thursday of every month at the Bear's Den at 7:00pm. This is not a dinner meeting. You may buy drinks or snacks, but it is not required for us to gather.

Hope to see you there!

Kim Coreson

Steering Committee

Anyone that would like to join us for a brainstorming session is welocme to meet at the Duck Inn at 6:30pm. No RSVP required, however I do know that Kay, Carol and I plan to be there.

Warmest Regards,

Kim Coreson

STEERING COMMITTE MEETING DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY

Our next meeting will be announced soon. I am thrilled with the response that we had with this first meeting. It looks like there are very capable, talented people that are ready get this off the ground.

A special thanks to Jan for coming all the way down from Anchorage to help us out.

I will be in touch with each of you very soon.


Kim Coreson
kimcoreson@yahoo.com

Letter of Introduction

A MILITARY FAMILY SUPPORT GROUP
Military Families Supporting Military Families:



My name is Kimberlie Coreson. I am the wife of Rob Coreson, who grew up in the Soldotna area, where we have also raised our 4 boys who are now ages 19, 18, 17 and 15.

In February of 2005 our oldest son, Jacob Coreson, entered the Army. In September of 2005 he was deployed to Iraq, where he now serves in the 72nd Engineering Company at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Warhorse in Ba’quba, Iraq. My second oldest son, Jonathan Coreson, has joined the Navy in their Delayed Entry Program (DEP), since he is still in high school. A month after his graduation, he will be going to Navy boot camp, then entering Special Forces training for the Special Warfare Combatant Crewman (SWCC).

With my oldest son in the heat of the battle, I found myself dealing with feelings that I did not know how to process. There was not much in my peaceful, free existence that prepared me for it. A retired Military Chaplain friend of mine from outside suggested that I look for a family support group in the area.

I decided that if there is one other mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandparent, spouse or child out there that is in need of emotional support, I would much rather spend my energy reaching out than focusing on my own fears. This will be a group for families of deployable, deployed or deploying military personnel open to all branches of the military.

We could simply exchange names and numbers and get a little support network going on, or we could do something that has a little more structure to it.

There is something called a Family Readiness Group. There are offices in Anchorage that will give us resouces to draw from if we are willing to become involved in the Family Readiness Group. The focus of the readiness group is to educate, empower and encourage.

Had I known something like this was available to me 4 months ago, I would have been to the very next meeting.

I invite you to attend our first meeting, which will be held on Sunday, April 1st at 3:00 at the Soldotna Senior Center. If you need to contact me for more information, you can email me at kimcoreson@yahoo.com.