Sending video postcards to parents overseas

Aaron Levine and his son Jake had an annual birthday tradition. Each year, no matter how tough times had been, Aaron would scrape together money to buy tickets so he could enjoy an Angels game with his only son.

But on Jake’s 13th birthday last May, the tradition would take a sharp turn. Instead of watching an Angels game with his dad, he was playing shortstop for his Huntington Beach little league team; his father, a California National Guard reserve, was in Fallouja.

“It was really tough for them to be apart for the first time like that,” said neighbor Darren Brown. “But they agreed to videotape the game and watch it together when he got back. Aaron even asked his ex-wife to get a close-up of Jake so he could give him batting tips.”

That day never came. Four days after Jake’s 13th birthday, Levine was killed in a roadside bomb attack as his convoy drove on a dangerous stretch of road.

“Even as a 13-year-old, I think that Jake had a pretty fatal view of his dad’s service in the military ? like he knew something bad was going to happen,” Brown said. “But to have the shared moment robbed from him was crushing. He felt cheated.”

The episode spurred Brown into action. A graduate student in the film program at USC, Brown wanted to figure out a way to connect troops with their children back home. After meeting with several other students, Brown decided to form Kid Videos 4 Troops, a charity group that helps youngsters share videos and photographs with their parents overseas.

Now the group is asking the public to help donate computer and video equipment. The organizers have already partnered with a number of businesses and hope to find more help within their community.

“The response so far has been pretty amazing,” said Ray Rhome, another film student at USC. A small computer-networking company has donated bandwidth, and a Santa Ana Web firm is helping them design the website.

“We have the protocol currently in place to stream video back and forth,” Rhome said, but a public website is still a few weeks away.

Brown said he is working with several veterans’ groups to locate families of soldiers serving in Iraq to see if they would be interested in participating in the programs. He’s already found more than two dozen in Huntington Beach alone.

Children are given a free laptop and digital video camera. Participating families are encouraged to record major family events, but Rhome said Kid Videos 4 Troops can also set up video diaries to send messages of hope and love to family members serving overseas. Brown said he will also be working with the youngsters to develop mini-documentaries about their lives at home.

Military personnel will be able to access the video messages from any computer with access to the Internet, using a special login to view their child’s video.

“When someone is serving overseas, they can miss some of the most important years of their child’s life,” Brown said. “While it won’t be the same as being there, we hope these videos can relieve a little of the stress that comes with service.”

Kid Videos 4 Troops is asking the public for helping by donating computer equipment for participating kids in the program. Brown is looking for digital video cameras, external hard drives and newer laptops that can support basic video-editing software. All donated computers will go to participating children, he said.

For more information, e-mail kidvids4troops@gmail.com.