Operation Moozie Outreach
Through Operation Moozie, CKN partners with organizations like WeServeToo who honor military families with programs reducing stresses that families endure due to deployments and reintegrations. Moozie backpacks are supplied to children at military bases and family events across and outside the USA. String backpacks are filled with Moozie story books, coloring book, cuddly Moozie hand puppet, and stickers. Each year, hundreds of children in military families have expressed joy upon receiving Moozie backpacks.
In 2021, 525 children of deploying families joyfully received Moozie backpacks, and in 2022, 315 children were backpack recipients. In 2023, Moozie brought cheer to 25 children at military family events. Moozie wants to bring joy and kindness to many more children with your help! Every $45 donated for Operation Moozie covers costs of another Moozie backpack kit.
Since late 2024, CKN has begun to expand Operation Moozie to reach children experiencing suffering from major impacts like natural disasters, personal lost, and/or serious illness. Thanks to kind individual donors, CKN sent 60 Moozie kindness kits, each including handmade card from Tennessee Girl Scouts, to children in Northeast Tennessee experiencing school and life disruptions in the wake of Hurricane Helene’s devastation. Local school counselors were thrilled to be able to share these comforting resources, especially with children who were displaced from their homes.
Here’s more on Moozie backpacks’ positive impacts and gratitude from military support contacts: Theresa Mason, WeServeToo founder, relays the positive impact of the Moozie kindness sessions with backpacks, “Our team repeatedly heard glowing comments about the program from both parents and youngsters.” Theresa recalls, “One particular response was quite powerful … it came from a 10-year old girl whose younger brother was handicapped due to Spina Bifada. I … had discussed the meaning of kindness with the youngsters … followed by reading Moozie’s Kind Adventure. After all took the “Moozie Pledge” (I promise to ALWAYS be kind … just like Moozie), I distributed the [Moozie] kits. The young girl was astounded at its contents — especially the Moozie hand puppet. She looked up at me and said, ‘I think this Moozie program will teach kids to be kinder to my brother!’ It was a cherished moment.”
Last summer, Ms. Dee Roman, President of the Katterbach [Germany] Catholic Women of the Chapel, received 250 back-packs, for children at Ansbach, Germany base whose family members were being deployed in support of the Ukrainian crisis. Dee shared, “The children absolutely loved the backpacks. The parents were quite surprised with the quality of items. The fact that the child received not only a book, but a puppet and other items was a very nice surprise.” The base also distributed backpacks through Child and Youth Services, where Ms. Trude Moellmann is Parent & Outreach Director and School Liaison Officer. Trude echoed, “We are so appreciative of the Moozie packs. Everyone is benefitting from these wonderful bags.” Further, the center incorporated Moozie kits into their Parent Participation program. Parents volunteer and read the Moozie Kind Adventure storybook in their children’s classrooms or send the center videos of how they are using Moozie backpacks at home. Also, each classroom uses a backpack within their Character Counts and CSEFEL (Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning) curriculum and lesson planning to promote social-emotional development and school readiness of young children birth to age 5. Trude observed, “These bags are perfect for our children. They are developmentally appropriate and fun, and we are eager to use them with our Military families.”