America Supports You: Group Helps Military Families Make Memories

"The military family, unlike any others, has multiple stresses related to daily life," said Linda Dennis, founder of Connect And Join. "Our communications portal is designed to easily allow families to share events while they are apart, and this scrapbook will allow families to capture ... events to share for a lifetime."

Today in Chicago, Connect And Join, a Web-based company that provides a forum for military families to keep in touch when their loved ones deploy, announced it is teaming with K&Company to make recording those events more special. K&Company, which produces scrapbooks and other methods of preserving memories, will be producing a Connect And Join Memory Scrapbook Kit.

The kit will be available this fall at major retail locations where craft and scrapbook items are sold, Kati Elliot, a Connect And Join spokeswoman said. With a suggested retail price of $29.95, it will contain an archival quality 12-inch-by-12-inch scrapbook with patriotic-themed paper, die-cut sticker sheets and a complimentary copy of the Connect And Join magazine.

A portion of the royalties earned by Connect And Join for the use of its name -- up to $5 per scrapbook sold -- will go to the Connect And Join Military Family Fund. This fund will be used to provide Connect And Join magazine subscriptions for military families and to support arts and crafts and computer education programs the organization provides during day camps for National Guard children.

"K&Company is all about helping people preserve and share their memories with future generations," Kay Stanley, founder and president of K&Company, said. "Now we get to help make sure those memories re made in the first place simply by helping families communicate."

As an America Supports You corporate team member, Connect And Join wanted to give back to the military community, Dennis said in a news release. "We are happy that K&Company also saw this vision and helped us bring it to fruition," she said.

The scrapbooks fill a distinct need, Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communications and public liaison, said.

"Connect And Join and the Connect And Join Memory Scrapbook Kit help bridge the gap between military families and their loved ones serving for us all over the world," she said. "We appreciate all the work of Connect And Join in aiding our servicemen and women with something so valuable to them, the feeling of being connected to home."

America Supports You is a nationwide Defense Department program highlighting the efforts of grassroots and corporate team members who support the nation's servicemembers.