Supporting the families left behind

As I mentioned recently, a number of soldiers in Iraq will be running the Honolulu Marathon this weekend. The course goes around a base several times, mostly over dirt roads. In part, running the Honolulu Marathon lets folks maintain a connection with home, but that's not the only reason that they are running. They're also running to support TAPS - an organization that provides support to the families of people who die while on active duty in the armed forces.

A death in the family is a massive tragedy, and creates a great deal of upheaval in the lives of those left behind. For the families of active duty troops, this disruption is even more massive. Besides dealing with the loss, the families frequently need to move - often to someplace where they haven't lived for years (if at all, in the case of the children). TAPS provides many forms of assistance to the families of the fallen, from grief counseling to aid with the day-to-day problems involved in re-establishing some form of normal life. The organization is not government funded, and relies on donations to do its work.

If you possibly can, I encourage you to do what you can to help the marathoners raise money for this group.

Thanks.