(gentle music)
- Hi and welcome to Between the Lines.
I'm Lea Woodford your host, and with me today
is amazing, award-winning author, Marie Joy.
"Buddy the Soldier Bear."
Wow, this is amazing.
- Well, thank you.
- I'm really excited to talk about your journey,
because when I heard your story, and you're a military mom.
- Mm-hmm.
- Can you tell me...
Can you tell me about that experience?
Tell me about your son and the way you would
take care of soldiers.
- Oh sure, I'd be happy to.
Well I grew up as a military brat like you.
(Lea chuckles softly)
But my oldest son joined the military shortly after,
you know, everything with 9/11.
It was 2003, but I can't explain the feeling
of sending your child away to war.
He was deployed five times in a seven-year period,
and I kind of had to do something to deal with all this.
And I said, "Well I'm just gonna
"start sending care packages."
And it took up most of my time, but it was good because
then I didn't have to think about it.
I had a mission myself to do it.
And people would donate things like Beanie Babies.
Whatever they donated, we put in the packages.
And I used to sometimes look in the packages and go,
"Gosh, if I could only mail myself there,
"and I could go visit my son."
And the first time he was deployed, it was 10 of them total
that we sent care packages to.
And that was really doable and manageable.
I had a lot of generous friends
that helped with the donations.
But the second time he was deployed,
there was 150 that he sent me a list of.
And I was like, "Wow, you really have faith
"in my fundraising abilities and everything."
But it all worked out, so many generous people.
And I would write a letter to each of the soldiers as well,
and so now I have about 150 sons.
But I used to dream of sending myself in the package,
but then I thought, I had that light bulb moment.
I was like, "Oh these little bears, wouldn't this make
"a great story for kids?
"About the bear going on the journey in the care package,
"going on adventures with the soldiers."
And that's where "Buddy the Soldier Bear" was born.
And I didn't have a whole lot of confidence in myself
that I could get a book published at that time,
so it kind of sat on my hard drive, which is not
a good thing to do.
(laughing)
- You backed it up, right?
- No, I didn't.
- Oh! - That's why it was so funny.
But it sat there for years, and then finally I started
attending writer's meetings, and they all heard the story,
and they really encouraged me.
So I ended up putting the book out,
and then it got awards and things.
I was like, "Who knew?"
- Well, let's take a look at this.
Well first of all, you won the Arizona Literary Contest
in 2017, the Readers' Favorite.
But look at...
It is so beautiful, the illustration.
But what I like's, when I heard your story, and it was
actually illustrated by a soldier with PTSD.
- Well, I don't know that he has PTSD, but he served
with my son, and I think to a certain extent they all do.
When he got out, he went to art school.
And he would post things online, drawings, paintings.
And I thought, "Wow, he's really talented."
So when I asked him, I said, "Brandon, would you be
"interested in illustrating this book?"
And he said, "Well sure, tell me the story."
And when I told him the story, he laughed and he said,
"Marie, you don't realize, we lived the story.
"You're the woman in the story who bought the bear
"and sent it.
"You sent me a bear."
And he goes, "Actually, I took that bear on different
"adventures in the Chinook," 'cause they were both
crew chiefs on a Chinook helicopter.
And he goes, "I took that bear everywhere with me,
"and in fact I still have it."
And he texted me a picture, and it's sitting on the shelf
above the desk where he draws.
And I thought, "Well, he has to illustrate it now."
I mean, it was kinda like goosebumps,
that meant-to-be moment.
And he's so talented.
- It's an incredibly beautiful book, but the box
that Buddy's in, it says, "Operation Hugs From Home."
- Well that was my organization that I was gonna have made
into an official nonprofit, and we sent thousands
of care packages over the years.
And, you know, my son had enough deployments
that I had enough names.
But also, friends would give me
their nephew's name, or anybody.
We didn't care, we added 'em to the list, and we said,
"We'll find a way to get stuff."
And churches donated, the people in the community,
and everybody from work.
I worked at a large hospital system at the time,
and people just donated like crazy.
They loved the whole thing.
And I was gonna have it made into an official nonprofit
so people could get receipts for tax write-offs and stuff,
but then I found the Blue Star Moms, and they were already
sending care packages.
Blue Star Moms are military moms.
You have a child who is serving or who has served.
And I thought, "Well why reinvent the wheel?
"They're doing it, let them go to the post office."
Because after a while, I'd walk in the post office,
and they'd be like, "Oh no," and they'd put
the break time sign up.
Because I would come in with 150 packages,
and there's six pages to stamp for Customs and stuff.
And they knew me on a first-name basis after a while.
It was exhausting, plus my house started looking like Costco
after Hurricane Katrina hit or something.
(laughing)
So I thought, "Why not let them do it?"
So I still pack care packages, but it's just
with the Blue Star Moms now.
And my son is out, but I'll never stop doing it.
They have to know that people care about them.
- Well and I, you know, being a military brat,
the other thing that I learned is that you send these bears
and the books to the children of deployed soldiers.
And my dad served in Vietnam three times.
And what people don't realize, I think, Marie Joy,
is it is not just the person who is fighting the war.
The whole family is right there with them.
- Mm-hmm, and we served in different ways.
- It's a sacrifice.
- Definitely. - It's an entire
family's sacrifice.
- And it's so hard.
You know, so many times I thought,
"You know, I'd rather be there myself."
I even talked to a therapist one time who said the family
kind of suffers a type of PTSD.
I am so passionate about helping veterans,
their families, active duty.
And now I've been working with some organizations
who fight soldier suicide, and I give a portion
of every book sale to organizations like this.
It's not one that I partner with, but it's whatever
I feel passionate about at the moment.
And there's some that are doing great work
with soldiers who are suicidal.
It's a terrible thing. - That's really alarming.
And I can't even imagine what it's like being a soldier
over there so far from home
and receiving something like this.
Hugs From Home, "Buddy the Soldier Bear."
I love that.
What was the hardest part about writing the book?
- Well, I wrote it real quickly, but then going through
editing was a fun experience.
And sometimes I second guessed myself.
I'm like, "I should've left that word in," or whatever.
And I think sometimes you over-edit,
and you just keep changing and keep changing,
and then the heart of the story starts going away.
And I'm like, "No, let me put that back in."
And even writing the acknowledgements and stuff,
I wanted to thank everybody on the planet who helped me.
And it became a book in itself, and I had to cut
some of that out.
But I learned so much along the way.
I really would like to write a second story
where Buddy is home with the soldier and his child,
and the soldier's maybe a little sad and gets a service dog.
I don't really wanna say PTSD or anything.
My purpose is not to scare children or anything.
But just to incorporate a service dog in there
so they understand they're there to help the person
or whatever, and let's face it, everybody loves dogs.
- So Buddy's gonna have a dog friend.
- Yes!
- I love that! - Obviously.
Maybe we could pattern him after your Abby.
- Abby, oh she'd love that.
(Marie Joy laughs)
- Oh, it's so emotional, and Buddy's such a cute bear.
- Well thanks.
I mean, we tried to make him look
as much like Brandon's drawing.
What we didn't realize is having a square head
is very unique, but trying to make the Army beret
fit on it is virtually impossible.
So he goes with a camo bandanna now, so.
- Buddy's really cute.
- Well thanks.
I think he is.
He's very squishy and lovable, and I'm proud of the fact
that it's made in the United States, too.
I mean, granted, I could save a lot of production cost
by sending it to China.
But I just think with the whole mission of the whole story
and everything, I'd feel like, "What if I was taking a job
"away from a veteran?"
You know, I just couldn't do it.
So they end up being more expensive, and trying to find
the right pricing and everything.
You know, I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur,
but let's face it,
you write a book-- - You're an entrepreneur!
- Yeah.
So, so many things go along with it,
and I'm learning along the way.
- But your heart is in this business.
- Oh definitely.
This is my son now, too. (laughs)
- Right, you've given birth
to Buddy the Soldier Bear. - Definitely.
- I really loved your story and your mission.
You know, what you guys don't know is now she works
at ASU helping military families.
- Yeah, I mean, if you're gonna have to have a job,
this is certainly the job that was meant for me.
I couldn't believe when they called me
and offered it to me.
I'd gone on many interviews over the past 10 years.
I went back to school, got a bachelor's degree,
then a got a master's degree, and then like crickets.
I sent out resumes.
A lot of times, they'd rather have the experience
than the degree, so I was like, "I wanna do something
"where I'm helping people, and if I can do something
"where I'm helping veterans, perfect."
And when I went on the interview,
it was just for a success coach.
They didn't say what kind of student.
It would be with online students, but didn't specify
what type, and I didn't care.
It sounded like a great job.
I love helping people.
And then they called me and said,
"Well we want you to be on a military team."
And I was like, another goosebumps moment.
You know, I was like, "Well absolutely."
And I've had so many wonderful conversations
with the students.
And some of 'em are like, "Will you call me every week,
"even on break?"
You know, so I just love it, and some of my students
are doing better because of resources I sent them.
And I'm like, "Well, I'm helping veterans
"in a different way."
It's just, it's fulfilling.
- This book has really changed
your life's trajectory, hasn't it?
- Oh definitely.
I never saw myself as an author.
I thought maybe an artist or something when I was young.
I'd always loved creativity.
And I loved to write my whole life, but I never sat there
thinking, "I'm gonna be an author."
But this story just came to me while I was
packing a care package, and I thought, "I have to do this."
And now, it's almost like a mission.
I wake up at three in the morning thinking of things
for the sequel, and...
You know how it is.
- I do! - You're working on yours.
- I do!
Thank you, Marie Joy.
- Well thank you so much.
- Again, a military brat.
And my sister was in the Air Force.
This is just so amazing, and you have no idea how much
you touch the lives of these soldiers.
Thank you.
- Well thank you.
- This has been Lea Woodford with Between the Lines.
Thanks for watching.