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MILITARY COMMUNITY,X‘V.': 7-Spc. Lindsay Oliveras photosFAIRBANKS -- Larry Baillon, Fairbanks Red Cross director, helps Polly Joa, wife of Sgt. 1st Class Charles Kittler, Medical Department Activity-Alaska, send her video email to her husband Tuesday.Red Cross helps families reach outSpc. Lindsay Oliveras Fort Wainwright PAOFAIRBANKS - Snail mail, short telephone calls and text e-mails used to be the way to contact a deployed loved one. The Red Cross now has a more visual alternative.The Tanana Valley Division of the Red Cross now offers video e-mailing to families of deployed service members through Project Video Connect, a worldwide Red Cross program.“Regular e-mail and letters are not the same as seeing someone in person,” said Ron Huffman, Fort Wainwright Red Cross director. “Video e-mails are a way to reach out and touch deployed soldiers.”Project Video Connect is offered to any family member of a deployed service member or anyone deployed as troop support, such as a contractor orAAFES.“Parents, grandparents, siblings or any family member can send a message to their soldier. Marine, sailor, airman or anyone they know helping troops overseas,” said Huffman.To send a video e-mail, a family member contacts the Red Cross to schedule an appointment.At the appointment, a Red Cross representative places the family members in front of a computer and small camera and explains the instructions.“It’s not complicated,” said Larry Baillon, TananaValley Red Cross director. “It only takes 10 to 15minutes, and we will give you all the help you want.” The family works alone in privacy from there to record a two-minute video message.“Being able to talk to him like this doesn't make him seem so far away,” said Polly Joa, whose husband. Sgt. 1st Class Charles Kittler, Medical Department Activity-Alaska, is deployed to Kuwait. “Being able to see and hear a person at the same time bridges the gap.”Joa said her husband has been thrilled to receive her video emails. She has sent him three since finding out about the service. \Huffman said video e-mails give service members the chance to experience events in their families’ lives even though they are far away.“A child can show his mother the gap in his teeth where he lost his first tooth, or a father can see his newborn for the first time,” he said. “It gives the family the opportunity to share with the loved one.” The Red Cross will have a video e-mail booth at the Tanana Valley Fair Aug. 3 with volunteers available to assist anyone wishing to send an e-mail.To set up an appointment, contact the Fort Wainwright Red Cross at 353-7234 or the Tanana Valley Division of the Red Cross at 456-5937.Contact the writer atli ndsay. oliveras@ wainwrigh t. army m i I
Newspaper Details
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Fairbanks, Alaska, US
Tue, Jul 29, 2003
Page 9
Full Page
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FL, USA 07 May 2019
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