(upbeat lighthearted 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.
- Oh thank you.
- I'm really excited to talk about your journey because,
when I heard your story and,
you're a military mom.
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.
But my oldest son joined the military shortly after,
you know, everything with nine 11.
And it was 2003 but I can't explain the feeling
of sending your child away to war
and he was deployed five times in a seven year period,
and I 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.
You know, I just, I had a mission myself to do it,
and people would donate things like beanie babies, you know,
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 those 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 light bulb moment
I was like "all these little bears wouldn't
this make a great story for kids
about the bear going on a 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, but.
- You packed it up, right?
- No, I didn't. That's why it was so funny,
but it sat there for years, and then finally I was,
I started attending writers 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 that like, who knew.
- Well, let's take a look at this.
Well first of all,
you won the Arizona Literary Contest in 2017.
The Reader's Favorite, but look at.
It is so beautiful, the illustration.
But what I liked, when I heard your story, and that it was,
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 saw,
I think to a certain extent they all do, but he,
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 this 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,
you know, adventures, and the Chinook."
'Cause they were both crew chiefs on Chinook helicopters.
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 a shelf above the desk where he draws.
And I thought, well he has to illustrate it now.
I mean, it's kinda like goosebumps
that meant to be a moment, you know, 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, you know, anybody, we didn't care,
we added them to the list, and we said
"we'll find way to get stuff" and churches donated,
the people on 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 you know,
receipts for tax write offs, and stuff.
But then I found the Blue Star Moms,
and they were already sending care packages,
and the Blue Star Moms are military moms.
You have a child who is serving, or who has served.
And I though well why reinvent the wheel, they're doing it.
Let them go to post office
because after a while I'd walk in the post office
and they'd be like "oh, no"
and they clicked the break time sing out
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,
and it was exhausting plus,
my house started looking like you know,
Costco after hurricane Katrina hit, or something.
So, I though 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,
it just, 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 sent them
these dares in the books
to the children of deployed soldiers,
and my dad served in Vietnam three times,
and what people don't realize, I think, or enjoy is,
it is not just the person who is fighting the war,
the whole family is right there with them.
- And we served in different ways, and.
- It's a sacrifice. - Definitely.
- It's an entire family sacrifice.
- And it's so hard, you know,
so many times I thought, you know
"I'd rather be there myself." And you know,
I even talked to a therapist one time
who said the family kind of suffers a type of PTSD.
You know, and I just, 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 these,
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're you know, suicidal, and 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.
Hopes 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 guess myself from 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.
Let's face it, everybody loves dogs, you know, and.
- So, Buddy's gonna have a dog friend.
- Yes. - I love this.
- Obviously, maybe we can partnered him after your Abby.
- Abby, she'd love that.
Oh, it's so emotional, and Buddy is 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 squared head is very unique,
but trying to make the army beret fit on it,
it's virtually impossible.
So, he goes with a camo bandana now, so.
- But he'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 production costs
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'm just 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 in everything,
you know, I never thought of myself of as an entrepreneur.
But let's face it.
- You're an entrepreneur.
- Yeah so, so many things go along with it,
and I'm learning along the way, you know.
- But your heart is in this business.
- Oh definitely. This is my son now too.
- Right, you've given birth to
Buddy the Soldier Bear. - Definitely.
- How can our viewing audience get your amazing book,
and a bear?
- Well the book is on Amazon,
it's in a few local bookstores as well,
but Amazon's the easiest way to get it.
And then the bear, I don't have on Amazon yet,
I probably will in the future
because I have to get the code for them and everything.
But if go through my website,
which is www.Buddythesoldierbear.com
you can click on it,
and you can purchase one through there,
or if your friends with me, or anything on Facebook.
- Hit her up on Facebook.
- Yeah, we can work out a way to get it to you,
I have a room full of them, so.
- I just, I really love your story, and your mission,
and 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 like, meant for me.
I couldn't believe when they called me,
and offered it to me,
I've gone on many interviews over the past 10 years.
I went back to school, got a Bachelors degree,
then I got a Masters degree, and then like crickets.
I sent out resumes,
and lot of times they'd rather have the experienced,
than the degrees.
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's just for a success coach.
They didn't say what kind of student,
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 the they called me and said,
well we want you to be on the military team,
and I was like, another goosebumps moment, you know.
It was like, well absolutely.
And I've had so many wonderful conversations
with the students, and some of them were like,
will you call me every week, even on break?
You know, so it's like, 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,
you know. 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 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 in was,
you know, 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, I do. - Your working on yours.
- Thank you Marie Joy.
- Well thank you so much.
- Again, military brat, and my sister was in the Air Force.
This is just so amazing, and you have no idea how much
you've touched the lives of these soldiers, thank you.
- Well thank you.
- This has been Lea with Between the Lines,
thanks for watching.