Introduction and Call for Feedback

We met through the Club Chronicle Challenge and have trained together for the Trail of Lights 5K since September 2007. Ingrid being an immigrant from the Netherlands originally (but arriving in the US via Canada where she had immigrated to first in the '80s) connected with Christine ("Chris") who had her share of travels and adventures to compare notes with. Chris decided in the '90s to go to Europe to teach English to American military men and women stationed in Bosnia. In order to prepare for her stint, she had to go through bootcamp with other recruits. Christine currently teaches several online courses through the University of Maryland, and a class at Austin Community College.

Ingrid is currently a stay-at-home mom of two and working on two grantwriting courses through UT informal classes. Her background is political science and having lived in very different cultures. Born and raised in the Netherlands, immigrated to Canada at 20, having lived in Saudi Arabia for a few years as a dependent living OUTSIDE the compound in the city of Alkhobar. Moved to the US and married her husband and has lived in Louisiana, Alabama, Arizona and now finally, Austin Texas. (no more moving!)

Our Call for Feedback

We are looking for veterans who can give us information and feedback of services/needs that they need (or would have wanted) in order to facilitate their reintegration into civilian life after combat. As mothers, we can appreciate that the family nucleus cannot be left out. We want to include the veterans' spouse and children as the necessary extension of needing support with that reintegration. The research that we've done so far has shown us that a lot of military families experience stress, depression, substance abuse, violence, some or all, and all stemming from the effects of war and not having had (enough) support or access to mental health programs or professionals.

The family is very important! We would love to find and provide help. Let us know what that could be!

We are also looking for volunteers to help research. Setting up a viable non profit that is well organized from the get-go is very important. However, there are only so many hours in a day and we have envisioned this whole enterprise as a communal outreach, consisting of civillian volunteers and veterans alike.

Please email us at veteransupport@gmail.com with the subject of your email in one of these categories; veteran feedback; family feedback; volunteer.

We might receive little feedback or a lot. In the event of a lot of feedback, we can only respond to so many so please (!) come back to this blog for updates. We appreciate ANYthing you have to share.
Thank you!