Second grader Myla Boyd is showing off a picture of her cat, Blur, to a group of students in the Clermont Elementary School Military Kids Club. The photo represents her family’s military service, Myla says, because she had to pack Blur in a crate and say goodbye to him for a few weeks while Blur was transported from California, where her family had been stationed, to their newest post in Virginia.

“We shipped him on a plane,” Myla says. “I was really, really happy when we picked him up in Virginia because I hadn’t seen him in a long time. This represents being a military kid to me because some kids never have to ship their family pet anywhere, but in the military we move a lot.”

School Counselor Paula Treger asks if anyone else has ever had to ship their family pet somewhere and some students around Myla nod in agreement. Creating connections between students from military families is one of the major goals of the Clermont Military Kids Club, which boasts 50 student members and is in its second year of operation. 

April is the Month of the Military Child, a time to recognize military-connected youth for their service and contribution to our community. Fairfax County Public Schools is proud to have more than 14,000 military-connected youth as a part of our student body. 

The Origin of a Supportive Group at Clermont
Multilingual learner teacher Tiffany Velishka has been married to an active duty field artillery U.S. Army soldier for 26 years. She stepped up to help lead the program at Clermont Elementary — where roughly 7.5% of the 540 students are military affiliated — after watching her own children handle multiple moves and different schools.

“You can feel isolated here off base, compared to living on base where you attend a school that is usually 100% military kids and everybody gets it because they’re living that life themselves,” Velishka said.

“Kids from military families are adjusting to the new norms when they move — everything from the culture of a school, what behaviors are acceptable here, who are my teachers, my new friends, my new mascot, to academics that can be completely different based on the new school district.”

Lana Blomberg, a veteran, military spouse, and mother of two, has been volunteering for the Military Kids Club since her family moved to the area and her kids enrolled at Clermont at the start of the 2022-23 school year. Blomberg’s husband has been in the U.S. Air Force since 2008.

Clermont Elementary has been designated a Purple Star School, meaning it was recognized by the state Department of Education and the Virginia Council on the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children for demonstrating their commitment to meeting the needs of military students and their families.

“The benefits this club brings to these kids is having the chance to meet all the other military kids in the school,” Blomberg said. “Discussion topics can range from moving all the time, deployment, saying hello/goodbye to friends, living in new places including overseas.” 

The Experience of Military Connected Kids

Blomberg has two kids at Clermont: Andrew, 8, is in third grade, and his big sister Haley is 11 and in the sixth grade. “Haley has been at school in Montana, one time in Germany, then Kansas, then back to Germany and now here in Fairfax County – five different schools already,” Blomberg says. “Seventh grade will be another school for my kids as we are headed to Japan.”

After show and tell, the students pivot to a BINGO game, but instead of numbers on the BINGO placards, they’re placing chips on a potential shared military kid issue they’ve experienced.

“Who here has had a bad military ID picture?” master of ceremonies Treger calls out. “Who has attended a boring military ceremony? Lived on base? Worried about your parents during a deployment? Been in a Humvee, a fighter jet, a helicopter, or a carrier jet? Picked up new slang or accent from a deployment yourself?”

Chips go flying on the board as kids also call out when something particularly memorable gets mentioned.

Beyond creating connections between military students (and a few State Department families who have also joined the group, given their shared experience of deployments and frequent moves), the Military Kids Club also aims to build an additional support system for children and develop a sense of pride in students whose families are serving our country, Treger says.

The monthly meetings often start with instructors reading a book — one favorite was about a horse that carried ammunition during the Korean War, illustrating the character trait of “grit” shown by those who serve. Another book was about a World War II pilot who dropped chocolate bars for people, illustrating “kindness.”

Students then participate in activities to reinforce those character traits, such as relays in the gym where kids pull each other on carpet squares, bringing (pretend) food rations to each other to demonstrate their own grit. Students also read a story about dandelions, the official flower of the Military Child, whose seeds can scatter around the world when uprooted, and grow where they land in most cases, to show perseverance. 

The Military Kids Club also writes letters to veterans, looks at maps and labels spots where their family has served, and marvels at how extensive their combined military service is around the world.

“I always tell my family, ‘Bloom where you are planted,’ because there is beauty everywhere you go,” parent volunteer Blomberg says. “We ask these kids to go through a lot. A Military Kids Club might seem like something small but it is giving something back to them and honoring them in a way.” 
 

Learn more about Purple Star Schools in FCPS and about Month of the Military Child.