USFallen.org Recognizes VallyofLife.com for Its On-line Grieving Services
With Memorial Day approaching, remembering those who have died in service to our country is foremost on many people’s minds. To help give families a place online to grieve for their fallen military heroes, Valley of Life is proud to partner with USFallen.org, a wonderful non-profit, non-partisan volunteer organization that produces weekly internet episodes showcasing active military fallen soldiers and honoring notable veterans. Today, we have a guest post from founder Jerry Castillo about memorializing military veterans online:
As founder of USFallen.org, I memorialize our fallen warriors in support of nation’s wars through weekly on-line videos. This endeavor came about as a result of the failing economy and many employers began to let people go – my included. As I was watching a Sunday morning talk show I saw a name of a fallen soldier from my area. As I began to research this young man’s story I was disappointed to learn so little information was available and what was available required advanced searching skills to get past the clutter and noise.
Having come from a family of service to our country, my father and uncle were WWII veterans and my brother and brother-in-law were Vietnam War veterans, and with time on my hands I began to research how current veterans were being memorialized.
With the advent of social media, I discovered people memorialize their fallen heroes on-line. Today’s technology allows people to share photos, videos, and their thoughts through blogs. Resources available to grieving family members and friends were increasing with various quality levels.
As I began to produce weekly episodes of our fallen I began to hear from family, friends and fellow comrades of our fallen warriors asking for assistance to help them centralize all the information available in one location. This was a tough task as there were sites available, but with limited functionality or resources. Some were inundated with banner ads or charged a fee.
Then I heard from the people of ValleyofLife.com. We began to exchange ideas on how they support the military community. After weeks of collaborations they designed templates especially for the different military branches.
What I am most impressed with is the ability for the family to issue statements, invitations and thank you messages while centralizing a place for others to share their condolences, stories and multimedia. In today’s environment convenience is a top priority for most Americans and we like things centralized. Amazingly, they provide this service for free. Newspapers still charge for obituaries, which seems unfair since our veterans served to ensure FREE-dom of the press.
When death impacts a family they rely on others to help them during this difficult period. Some families share their experience with the public while others prefer to remain private. In either case the family should consider announcing the death of a family member, service details and express their wishes so others will know their desires. ValleyofLife.com fills that need and so much more.
USFallen.org wishes to express our gratitude and appreciation to ValleyofLife.com for recognizing the special needs of the on-line grieving community and especially our military veterans.
Jerry Castillo
Founder, USFallen.org
Thank you, Jerry!
[photo: StuSeeger]
Tags: memorializing loved ones, online memorials, U.S. veterans, veteran memorial templates
