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Volume 27, June 2015

Summer Kickoff Issue

SOLDIER & FAMILY TOOLKIT 1/34 ARMORED BRIGADE COMBAT TEAM

Youth Camps

Page 5

Education

Benefits

Page 8

Substance

Abuse FYIs

Page 9

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The intent of this toolkit is to provide you with available events, deals, resources, and important information. Please take a few minutes to glance at these resources and visit a few sites!

IN THIS ISSUE 3 BEYOND THE YELLOW

RIBBON EVENTS & DEALS

4 EDUCATION BENEFITS

5 YOUTH CAMPS

6 HEALTHY MONEY HABITS

8 POST 9/11 GI BILL BENEFITS

9 SUBSTANCE ABUSE FYIS

12 RESOURCE LINKS

13 FAMILY ASSISTANCE CENTERS

The intent of this toolkit is to provide you with available events, deals, resources, and im-

portant information. Please take a few minutes to glance at these resources and visit a few

sites!

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Check out the Beyond the Yellow

Ribbon website and sign up for

exclusive email updates on

monthly local Beyond the Yellow

Ribbon events and deals.

www.BeyondTheYellowRibbon.org

HOME FRONT EVENTS & DEALS

Honoring Women in Combat - The Untold Story When: June 7, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Where: Mall of America, Bloomington About: Celebrate the history of and future for women in the mili-tary. Meet the author of Ashley's War, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon and have her sign your copy of the book. More Info: Flyer Free Drop-In Legal Clinic for Veterans When: June 9, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Where: VA Medical Center, Minneapolis About: The Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV), in partnership with the law firm of Robins Kaplan LLP, invites you to participate in a free drop-in clinic for veterans. More Info: Flyer The Restore and Empower Retreat When: June 11-14, 2015 Where: Camp Bliss, Walker About: This retreat will provide exercises in mindfulness and heal-ing with a goal to empower female veterans to create a healthy and purposeful life! More Info: Flyer Minnesota Military Family Tribute Dedication Ceremony When: June 13, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Where: Minnesota State Capitol Mall About: The Minnesota Military Family Tribute (MFT) is hosting a dedication ceremony to thank U.S. Military Gold Star, Blue Star, and veteran family members. This event will feature country music artist Rockie Lynne and The Steele Family. More Info: Flyer

Career Exploration Night When: June 16, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Where: St. Cloud Technical and Community College About: Youth ages 11 and up and their parent/guardian and/or mentor are invited to attend Career Exploration Night, a fun way to learn about career opportunities. More Info: Flyer

Salute to Servicewomen Golf Classic When: June 16, 2015 Registration begins at 11 a.m. Shotgun start at 1 p.m. Where: Prestwick Golf Course, Woodbury About: Women golfers are invited to enjoy a day of ceremo-ny, friendship, and golf. 100% of proceeds will benefit indi-vidual women veterans through the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV). More Info: Flyer Free Drop-In Legal Clinic for Veterans When: June 17, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Where: Mankato Armory About: Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans invites you to participate in a free legal clinic for veterans. More Info: Flyer Free Drop-In Legal Clinic for Veterans When: June 23, 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Where: St. Cloud VA HCS About: Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans invites you to participate in a free drop-in legal clinic for veterans. More Info: Flyer United States Secret Service When: June 27-28, 2015 Session 1: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Session 2: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Where: Navy Operational Support Center, Minneapolis About: The United States Secret Service will be conducting Employment Information Sessions at the Naval Operations Support Center. RSVP is required. More Info: Flyer Free Drop-In Legal Clinic for Veterans When: July 7, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Where: Redwood Area Community Center About: Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans invites you to participate in a free drop-in legal clinic for veterans. More Info: Flyer

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MN VETERANS EDUCATION BENEFITS

CLICK BELOW FOR EMBEDDED PDF OR GO TO WWW.MYMILITARYEDUCATION.ORG

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MILITARY YOUTH CAMPS

This is only a portion of the wonderful opportunities that are offered to our

youth! Be sure to check out

www.beyondtheyellowribbon.org/youth-camps

Contact Laura 651-268-8695 or Moriah 651-268-8378

For any questions about

Tween Overnights

Military youth ages 9-13 can spend the night at the Minnesota Zoo and other fantastic locations to network with other military teens and learn how animals are resilient.

September 5-6, Mall of America Sea Life Aquarium

Defending the Blue Line Youth Hock-ey Camps

Nearly a dozen camps, located throughout the nation, are available for free or at a discount for military youth. The camps are one of many ways Defending the Blue Line ensures that chil-dren of Servicemembers are afforded every op-portunity to participate in the game of hockey.

Check the website for dates: http://www.defendingtheblueline.org/programs/camps/

MN Elks Youth Camp

Campers will go fishing, play mini golf, go bik-ing, kayaking, swimming, participate in archery, and other great activities at camp. July 12-18, Nisswa, MN.

Teen Summit

Teens will participate in unique team-building activi-ties, attend fun engaging leadership workshops, par-ticipate in a service learning project, and go on an outing. June 26-28th in the Metro

Teen Panel

The goal of Teen Panel is to build resiliency through empowering teen participants in developing leader-ship skills, learning teamwork strategies and giving back to the communities. July 30th-August 1st.

Camp Corral

Camp Corral provides kids non-stop fun with activi-ties like canoeing, swimming, fishing, arts and crafts, ropes course challenge, archery, and horseback rid-ing. June 7-12 in Lake Park, MN.

National Guard Youth Camp

Ages 10-15 gather on Camp Ripley, Minnesota Na-tional Guard Youth Camp. The youth spend seven days experiencing Camp Ripley and its surrounding. Camp is not a "boot camp". Activities include, bik-ing, archery, orienteering and night vision goggles. Cost is $100-150. Week 1: 26 July - 1 August Week 2: 2-8 August.

Operation Purple Camp

Campers will participate in camp activities such as mili-tary day, bonfires, swimming, fishing, camper games, and

other fun activities

Dates: July 12 to 17, 2015.

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HEALTHY MONEY HABITS SAVING FOR COLLEGE

Bottom Line: The reason most people don’t have enough money set aside for college is not their rate of return on their investments; it is that they don’t save early and often enough. Below are the numbers I ran for my family’s situa-tion and should not be considered financial advice. Please consult a financial professional for advice regarding your specific situation. Every so often, I put together a progress report for a specific area of our financial life. Most recently, I took a look at our college savings progress. We have three kids ages four, and due in July. We plan to have our kids complete their first two years of college during their last two years of high school thanks to Minnesota’s Post Secondary Education Pro-gram. Once baby comes, my husband will be transferring his Chap-ter 33 education benefits to them. We think he will be able to give them each one year’s worth of school and that will cover year three. For year four, we plan to use savings for one semester. The other semester we will use scholarships and cash flow. Tuition, books, and fees at the main university in Minnesota is $7000 per semester. For our four-year old, we will need to have $7,000 in today’s money ready to go in seventeen years (13,635, assuming 4% inflation). For our two-year old, we will need to have it ready in nineteen years (14,747, as-suming 4% inflation), and for our summer baby, we’ll need to be ready in twenty one years ($15, 951, assuming 4% in-flation). My numbers use 4% inflation, but the current infla-tion rate for college is 7%. If this rate continues, the respec-tive costs would be $22,111, $25,315, and $28,983. To save for college, we use a Coverdell Educational Savings account. It has a limit of $2,000 in contributions per year, which is more than adequate in our situation. It allows the money to grow tax-free. For our first-born, we started putting money we received for her birthdays and things into the account and occasionally added money. She has $1,300 in the account and it should grow to $9,000 by the time we need it. That means we are

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SAVING FOR COLLEGE (CONTINUED)

For our two-year old, we have $334 in the ac-count and it will grow to about $3,000. If we wanted to make up the additional $12,000 we are going to need, we would have to put in $1,400 this year. Since baby three’s account can’t be opened until he is born, we will have to wait to deposit the $1,500 that will grow to the $16,000 he will need. If the inflation rate stays at 7% instead of the 4% we are hoping for, we would need to add $2,000, $2,600, and $2,700. Some additional considerations are that we plan to grow our family in the future by adopting. Since ESA accounts are transferrable, it would make sense for us to contribute more than we intend to use to pay for future additions to our family. We have the expectation that unless they get scholarships to cover private or out-of state tuition, they will go to an in-state school or equivalent. Some states such as North Dakota charge military dependants in-state tuition re-gardless of residency. We also have the expec-tation that our kids will be working while they are in college and be able to cash flow many of their expenses and build savings. Since we will have our mortgage paid off in the next few years, we will also have the cash flow to be able to assist with expenses for multiple students at the same time. Scholarships are another re-source that often go under-utilized by Families. Our first strategy is for our kids to get coaching in taking the ACT and SAT (Pythagorean triples anyone?). Many scholarships at schools de-pend on these test scores. Even moving up a few points could lead to thousands of dollars more. We also plan to turn scholarship hunting into a Family hobby. If they apply for ten schol-arships a week during their Junior and Senior years and get turned down for 99% of them, they would still receive ten. If the average was $1,000 a piece, that would equal $10,000. Amongst the financial community, there is great debate about where college saving should fit into a Family’s financial plan. For our family, it makes sense to finish up the four-year old’s col-lege fund just to say we have it crossed off of our list.

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The transferability option under the Post– 9/11 GI Bill allows Servicemembers to transfer all 36 months or some unused benefits to their spouse or dependent children. (This can be any combination of spouse and/or more than one child.) The Department of Defense (DoD) de-termines whether or not you can transfer benefits to your family. The family member(s) must be enrolled in the Defense Eligibility Enrollment Reporting System (DEERS) and be eli-gible for benefits at the time of transfer to receive transferred benefits. Once the DoD ap-proves benefits for transfer, the new beneficiaries apply for them at VA.

POST 9/11 GI BILL TO SPOUSE AND DEPENDENTS

WWW.BENEFITS.VA.GOV/GIBILL

Criteria

Transfer option is open to any member of Armed Forces active duty or Selected Reserve, who is eligible for the Post 9/11 Gi bill ( check www.dmdc.osd.mil/milconnect/faces/index for eligibility) and meets the following criteria:

Has a least 6 yrs of service in the Armed Forces on the date of approval and agrees to serve 4 additional years

Has at least 10 yrs of service in the Armed Forces on the date of approval, is precluded by either standard policy or statute from committing to 4 additional years, and agrees to serve for the maximum amount of time allowed by such policy or statue

Is or becomes retirement-eligible and agrees to serve an additional 4 yrs of service on or after Aug. 1, 2012. A Servicemember is considered to be retirement-eligible if he or she has completed 20 yrs of active federal or 20 qualifying yrs as computed.

Nature of Transfer

Family member use of transferred educational benefits is subject to the following rules:

Spouse

May start to use the benefit immediately, even when the member reamiains in the Armed Forces or after separation from duty

Are not eligible for the monthly housing allowance while the member is serving on active duty

Can use the benefit for up to 15 yrs after the service members last separation from active duty

Children

May start to use the benefit only after the individual making the transfer has completed at least 10 ys of service in the Armed Forces

May use the benefit while the eligible individual remains in the Armed Forces or after separation from active duty

May not use the benefit until he or she has attained a secondary school diploma (or equivalency certificate) or he or she has reached age 18

Is entitled to the monthly housing allowance stipend even though the eligible individual is on active duty

Is not subject to the 15-yr delimiting date, but may not use the benefit after reaching 26 yrs of age

TO SUBMIT a Transfer Request please see the checklist at: http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2009/0409_gibill/Transferability_Process_defense.gov_forPhaseIII_FINAL.pdf

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RESOURCE LINKS ARMY / NATIONAL GUARD minnesotanationalguard.com armyonesource.com militaryonesource.mil CHILDREN ADAPT: cehd.umn.edu/fsos/adapt operationwearehere.com mnchildcare.org ausa.org/family mdva.state.mn.us/child guardfamilyyouth.org militarykids.org DISCOUNTS beyondtheyellowribbon.org military.com/discounts/category EDUCATION education4military.com gibill.va.gov militaryonesource.mil militarychild.org EMPLOYMENT esgr.org mn.gov/deed FMLA: dol.gov/whd/fmla HEALTH / MENTAL HEALTH tricare.mil militarymentalhealth.org Counseling 24/7: militaryonesource.mil MARRIAGE AND RELATIONSHIPS Marriage Retreats: strongbonds.org militaryonesource.mil PARENTS OF SOLDIERS bluestarmoms.org operationwearehere.com/Parents.html PET CARE dogsondeployment.org netpets.org guardianangelsforsoldierspet.org SPOUSES & SIGNIFICANT OTHERS militarysos.com spousebuzz.com milspouse.com msccn.org nationalmilitaryspousenetwork.org STRESS MANAGEMENT militaryonesource.mil defense.gov/specials/stressawareness

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