Families Without Fathers

In Yahoo! news today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070303/ap_on_re_us/families_of_the_fallen an article talks about how the “Military faces growing ranks of bereaved.” One chilling statistic: Of the 3,350 Americans who died in Iraq and Afghanistan through early January, 1,586 of them — 47.3 percent — were married. Those fallen warriors left behind 1,954 children, according to the Pentagon’s Manpower Data Center. More recent deaths have pushed that figure past 2,000.

At Fort Hood, they have a support group, Fort Hood support center: http://www.goldstarfamilysupport.org/ to help these military families.  However, the need far extends beyond those military families affected by a father’s death.

And, that is the point of this posting… What about the hundreds of non-military families that lose a father each year?  These are combat-related deaths, but deaths that don’t make the 5:00 p.m. news.  Car accidents, heart attacks, disease - these are the silent killers that don’t make the headlines, but have just as a dramatic and devastating impact as losing a father due to war.

Which is why Families Without Fathers needs your support.  For, our mission is to help ALL the families, not just military, who have lost a father — for what ever reason. 

Well, it’s inevitable that for non-profit organizations to succeed in their missions, they will have to embrace Web 2.0 as a platform for reaching the next-generation of 18-34 year olds.  Given that, one of our goals this year is to increase our exposure and reach into Web 2.0 vehicles, such as Squidoo. 

In case you haven’t been to Squidoo, check it out.  There’s a great deal of interesting stuff there, including a whole area dedicated to non-profits.

As well, check out our Squidoo developments… http://www.squidoo.com/jdrf/FamiliesWithoutFathers 

We’ll be doing more in the Web 2.0 space as more resources become available.  But, for now, we’re off to a great start thanks to your support!