Mom’s Choice Awards honoree Maria T. DiVencenzo recently sent us a note about HeroConnect, a project she’s been working on for the past year. “over the past few months dozens of dedicated, talented, super smart people stepped up to make magic happen. Professors, US Naval commanders,  designers, high school students, broadcast news anchors, editors,  CEOs, retired US Air Force colonels, baseball buddies, exhausted husbands — the list goes on and on — all contributed their time and talents in the hope of making a difference for the military families who sacrifice so much for our nation.”

HeroConnect Corporation is a non-profit organization that provides services and support for the families of US military service members deployed overseas or otherwise separated from their families due to mission responsibilities.

Throughout the fall of 2010, HeroConnect will create personalized storybook gift packages to ship to the children of deployed soldiers during the holidays–at no cost to the soldiers or their families. Here’s how it works. Deployed service members register with HeroConnect. They create and upload recordings of themselves reading one HeroConnect book. Then HeroConnect creates a personalized gift package with the book itself and a CD of the recording. and sends to the service member’s family.

There are two books available for recording: Maria’s multi-award-winning book The Star of Christmas, and her just-released picture book, The Scariest Dream Ever.

To help introduce the concept to the public, the staff at HeroConnect have created a series of short videos. Each offers a little different perspective on the why’s and how’s of the program. Some – like this one – with a touch of humor.

You can learn more about the program – and sponsor a family – by visiting the HeroConnect website. www.heroconnect.org or via these YouTube videos.