By: Deborah Johnson Wood
It’s not often one gets to use the “Department of Defense,” “Facebook,” and “Middleville, Michigan” in one sentence, but here it is: The Department of Defense, Facebook, and Middleville, Michigan-based MilitaryAvenue.com have partnered and launched America Supports You-My Military Avenue, a virtual community to support military families who are relocating, or have relocated, to a new military installation.
The purpose of the virtual community is multi-fold: military families connect with other military families to find out about a new installation they’re moving to—schools, churches, grocery stores, best places to live; friends easily keep in touch with each other even after relocation; military who served together in the past can reconnect.
“Allison Barber, the DOD’s new media director, works out of the White House, and she and her team worked with us to get this new Facebook application going,” says Dan Kissinger, founder of MilitaryAvenue.com.
Kissinger, a self-proclaimed “military brat,” lived in 14 states and attended 19 schools by the time he graduated. That’s common for military families. The need to stay in touch with friends left behind and to find out about the place they’re moving to before they move is tremendous.
MilitaryAvenue.com provides information about 240 military installations across the United States. That information isn’t just about the base—it’s also about the outside community to help the families get acclimated quicker and easier, and to help them locate stores that offer military discounts that help stretch the family’s dollar.
The new Facebook and DOD application is a natural spinoff to the services MilitaryAvenue.com already provides, and establishes the community aspect the site lacked.
“This is a resource my family really could have used when we were moving around,” Kissinger says, “and that’s why we started it.”
Note: To access America Supports You-My Military Avenue, log into Facebook and launch a search.
Source: Dan Kissinger, MilitaryAvenue.com; Daniel Schoonmaker, Alexander Marketing
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Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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