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March 18, 2007
Welcome Corvallis Gazette Times and Albany Democrat Herald readers
One of the joys of rural living is the willingness of local media to support the projects that support our troops.
The Democrat Herald and Gazette Times have been especially supportive - each year when we launch Operation Santa USMC, they have run front-page stories that share our mission - to support our deployed Marines. When Connie and I started this site, we had a connection as Marine Moms. Two years later, our sons who were stationed at the same base but had been on opposite sides of the world for two years, swapping places in the same dusty Iraqi city, met for the first time at the 4th of July picnic in Albany. The Democrat Herald was there to cover that meeting. And today, they're in the Red Horse Coffee Company where I hang out whenever I have the chance - the owner is a former Marine, gotta support the extended family - to explore local blogs. Here's what they have to say:
When Deb Conrad's son, Cpl. Shane Conrad, deployed to Iraq for the first time, the Marine mother struggled to find a way to channel her fear and her curiosity about the situation overseas.She began searching the Web for news resources about Iraq that she wasn't finding in the local media.
"I wanted 'boots on the ground' stories," the Lebanon woman said.
She discovered military blogs were a great source of information on the kind of stories she was searching for.
"I had my favorites I read almost every day," she said.
So when Shane was deployed a second time, Conrad decided the things she'd learned, not only about Internet resources, but also about surviving the deployment of a son, would make great blog topics themselves. So she launched her own blog called "Marine Corps Moms" (www.marinecorpsmoms.com). The blog became a way to share what she'd learned with large groups of people under similar circumstances.
"Instead of answering e-mails, it was more efficient to put things on a Web site," she said.
The site gave her a feeling of being proactive while her son was serving in Iraq.
"It was a great way for me to cope," she said. "I had a lot of anxiety, a lot of negative emotions."
She worked with local company Salyris Studios to set up the site.
When Conrad began organizing a local branch of "Operation Santa" to gather donations to send holiday gifts to deployed Marines, she used the blog to promote the project.
"It allowed us to have a national presence in a hurry," she said. Because of donations flowing in from across the country, they were able to expand their donation from gifts for 35 Marines to stuffing 6,000 stockings.
At the peak of her son's second and third deployment, when she was blogging several times a day, Conrad said, she had between 5,000 and 10,000 hits a day on her site. While that number has dropped, and the frequency of her posting has also dropped now that her son is home for good, she is still maintaining the blog as a resource for military families.
Her son had limited access to the Internet during his second deployment, but he was occasionally able to read his mother's blog, and he'd call or e-mail her to let her know he was paying attention.
Conrad said she's received a lot of positive responses to her blog, with some military parents calling it a "lifesaver." She still culls the Internet for stories about Iraq, and tries to put stories with more positive content on the site.
"We have a lot of parents reading" the site, she said, and she doesn't want to focus on negative stories, although, "I don't sugar-coat stuff."
She also offers a lot of helpful hints to families facing an upcoming deployment of a son or daughter. Parents are usually prepared to send their children off to college, but few know what to do when those children go to war.
"Doctor Spock doesn't cover that," she joked.
Posted by Deb at March 18, 2007 11:50 AM
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