North Carolina Governor Awards $20,000 in Childcare Funding to Marine Base
The Jacksonville Daily News
April 23, 2003

Deployments and separations are a way of life for the 43,000 Marines and sailors of II Marine Expeditionary Force headquartered at Camp Lejeune, but Tuesday their families received some support from the state they call home.

"North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley presented base commander Maj. Gen. David M. Mize with a check for $20,000 to help military families with child care during a media event at the Tarawa Terrace housing area aboard Camp Lejeune."

The money is being funneled to Lejeune through a program by the North Carolina Bankers Association called Reaching Out To Communities.

After a brief tour of the Tarawa Terrace Day Care Center in which Mize and Easley talked to the staff and posed with the young patrons, roughly 50 children between the ages of 3 and 4 joined in a rousing rendition of "Proud to Be an American."

The number of children at the facility was a testament to how things have changed at Lejeune since 1990-91 when Marines were sent to the Persian Gulf , Mize said.

"In Desert Storm, 75 percent of the families left the area," Mize said and pointed out that only about 10 percent of military families at Lejeune left the area for the current war with Iraq .

Mize said the money would be split between the two day care facilities at Camp Lejeune and about 50 approved satellite providers set up in private homes throughout the community. Much of the effort will focus on supporting single parents because their spouses were deployed away from the area, not necessarily full-time single parents who are deployed.

"We have a hierarchy of how we spend it," Mize said. "It will first go to the single parents of those deployed."

During brief remarks, Easley spoke of how the Marines and sailors make up the fabric of the Onslow community. More than 20,000 are now deployed in the Persian Gulf and other areas in the war on terrorism.

"These are not just (troops), but they're the mentors, coaches and teachers," Easley said.

Easley encouraged other private organizations to give and joined Mize in praising the Jacksonville-Onslow Chamber of Commerce for its efforts.

"This is a long-term deployment, and we have a responsibility to the military families," Easley said. " North Carolinians don't leave North Carolinians behind, just as Marines don't leave Marines behind."