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Trips for Troops
By Senitra Horbrook, Staff Writer
Navy veteran hopes to help military families reconnect by sending them on vacation
Service men and women may spend months overseas, but it’s far from being a vacation. Troops spend months away from their families and, upon returning, sometimes find it difficult to reconnect with loved ones.
“Our goal is just to help these military families because the divorce rate is so high,” said Lorianne de La Vega, founder and executive director of Trips for Troops.
“I had been brewing for a long time on how to take my love of military and (desire) to help people,” said de La Vega, a Flower Mound resident who works in Carrollton. “Last June, there it was so I immediately Googled to see if anything else was out there and that’s when it started.”
Being a veteran of the United States Navy, de La Vega has seen firsthand the effects of deployment on families.
“Any extra money usually ends up going to pay off bills and credit. There is no money left over for vacations,” she said. “When you’ve been separated for so long and you’re just thrown back into life to be able to spend even a couple days out of normal life to get to know each other all over again can be invaluable.”
Ron Slack, de La Vega’s father, was one of her initial supporters and agreed to be on the board of directors.
“Being an ex-vet myself (Vietnam), I understood what she was talking about. Most guys in the military couldn’t afford to take a decent vacation. I saw a lot of my friends break-up,” Slack said. “(Trips for Troops) gives them a chance to reconnect. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s a start. You come home from being deployed and you’re broke, you get right back into a cycle. Everybody needs a vacation and you don’t have to go in debt to go on a vacation.”
The length of a trip is dependent on the length of deployment. Approximate trips lengths have been tentatively scheduled as: two nights for a two to three month deployment, three nights for four to five months, four nights for six to seven months, five nights for eight to nine months, six nights for 10 to 11 months and seven nights for 12 or more months.
Married couples with or without children and single parents with their children may apply for a trip. Vacation destinations will be tailored to each family and will depend on funding.
“There will be an application they fill out. We’ll do a background check. It’s basically first-come, first-serve,” de La Vega said. “The goal is every single family that wants to go on a trip can.”
Trips for Troops is currently focused on obtaining funding as the organization subsists solely on donations and partnerships. Trips for Troops is in process of receiving 501(3) (c) status from the IRS, however, all donations are tax-deductible in the interim. de La Vega said she hopes to have enough funding to send a family on vacation by mid-2009.
“Our first goal is to get a family and send them on vacation,” Slack said. “Then we can use that to leverage ourselves and get more donations to send others on vacations.”
Slack is one of three members of the board. He said his part is an advisory role, giving de La Vega advice on where to seek donations and using his connections to get her connected. Other board members include Navy veterans Russ Bogar of Montana and Bill Lanahan of Georgia.
“I personally invest in this,” Slack said. “I think it’s a great way we can give back to men and women that are serving our country.”
For information on Trips for Troops, visit tripsfortroops.org or e-mail Lorianne de La Vega at lorianne@tripsfortroops.org.
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