Desert students raise money for dog tags, help connect children to deployed parents

  • Published
  • By Diane Betzler
  • Staff Writer
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Desert Junior-Senior High School students banded together to raise more than $400 to help support a cause that captured their hearts - Dog Tags for Kids, which helps children understand their deployed parent is thinking of them.

The cause has been going since 2004. That is when Rose Sliepka of Lancaster, Calif., started engraving dog tags that she ships to troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait, so America's fighting men and women can have something to send home to their children to let them know that mom or dad is thinking of them.

Ms. Sliepka's passion is to ensure that no child whose parent has been deployed is left behind to feel abandoned or forgotten.

"I received a dog tag from my dad when I was in seventh grade," said Rachael Brater, an 11th grader at Desert High.

"I wore it till the day my dad came home," she said.

It all began more than a decade ago when Ms. Sliepka received a request from her brother to send him a greeting card so that he'd have it to mail to his wife on Mother's Day.

Ms. Sliepka's brother was in Iraq during Desert Storm and amenities such as greeting cards were nonexistent.

The request touched Ms. Sliepka's heart and so she sent several cards to her brother believing other American servicemembers would enjoy having them to send to the mothers in their lives.

Shortly after that she read a story about a soldier in Iraq who wanted to send gifts to his children so they would know he was thinking about them. According to the story, the only items the soldier was able to get were a couple of Band-Aids and a container of sunscreen.

The story went on to say after receiving the package from their father, it didn't matter to the children what was in the package, what mattered to them was that it came from their dad.

That story also touched Ms. Sliepka's heart and caused her to think about other American children who were missing their parents who were deployed.

She decided dog tags with a simple engraved message might do the trick. The message said: "With love from Dad (or Mom)," the branch of service the parent belongs to and the name of the country the parent is serving in.

She started engraving dog tags in her shop in Lancaster. She engraved red tags to represent Marines, blue to represent the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard and green to represent the Army.

What started out as a kind gesture for a few, soon turned into an avalanche of goodwill for thousands.

"To date, we've shipped more than 615,000 dog tags to our forces over seas, with requests for more coming in every day," she said.

"Every time I get a letter from a serviceman it motivates me to continue with the program," Ms. Sliepka said. She then tells a story about a 5-year-old boy whose heart was broken after his father had been deployed, because he thought his daddy left him.

"Until he received a dog tag from Iraq that read, 'With love from Dad,' and he knew then that his father hadn't forgotten him," Ms. Sliepka said.

This and similar heart-wrenching stories continue to inspire Ms. Sliepka as well as her growing supporters.

"When we heard about the program I told my students this is something meaningful that we can support," said Debbie Lewis, science instructor at Desert High.

"Ms. Sliepka has started something really cool," she said.

Sixteen of Mrs. Lewis' students pitched in, made flyers and signs and started a campaign for the high school and junior high students to contribute to the Dog Tags for Kids project. The students spent a week advertising for contributions and set a goal to raise at least $300.

"We asked each student to donate 50 cents to fulfill our goal," said 16-year-old Rachael.

They collected $412 and excitedly presented the money to Ms. Sliepka in their classroom Feb. 14.

Four dollars and ninety cents buys 199 tags, said Ida Ketchum, a Lancaster resident who has been a supporter of the program almost from the start.

"Each tag buys a smile and these high school and junior high kids just bought 824 smiles," Mrs. Ketchum said.

"My father was deployed to the Middle East in 2006," said Jenieva Abner, a 16-year-old Desert High School 11th grader. "I never got a dog tag, but I know how kids feel when one of their parents gets deployed," she said.

Jenieva said she thinks it's really cool that kids are now getting the dog tags from their parents while they are away.

Fellow student Jacob Floyd, also 16, said his father was deployed last year. Although Jacob didn't get one of the Dog Tags for Kids while his father was gone, he said, the intent of the program motivated him to do what he can to support the cause.

"We're excited that Ms. Sliepka thought of this," said Mrs. Lewis. She said helping out was a very easy task for her students.

"My students spent a week advertising. Once they got the word out about the cause and that they hope to collect 50 cents from each student in both schools, they were back in their classroom counting the money within 15 minutes after collecting the donations," she said.

Ms. Sliepka has no immediate plans to quit the program, "As long as we have the funds and volunteers, you can't just stop. There's always one more kid who needs a tag," she said.