Quotes from Parents: "Renewing, affirming, caring and low-key. The balance was so well done. All the folks involved should feel like the new Marines at their warrior breakfast. OOHRAH." Shellie, Marine Parent, 2006

If you attended the conference last year, the first thing you'll notice about this year's format is that we've got more informal group sessions and a little more breathing space between events. We've also built in some tours of Marine Corps specific sites in the Washington, DC area on Friday before the conference as well as time to get together with newly-met friends for some site seeing on Sunday after the conference.

We'll start the pre-conference out with an informal meet-and-greet on Thursday evening, then gather together for tours of The Marine Corps Museum, 8th & I, and our own private exhibit of the Silent Drill Platoon on Friday.

The conference will kick-off with a buffet dinner and opportunities to meet and talk with Marine Corps parents and family members on Friday evening. The Saturday sessions will be general sessions on the most popular topics from last year, including Pat Kerr's Veteran's Benefits, Colonel McCoy's Deployment Discussion Panel, and Dr. Bridget Cantrell's PTSD and Warrior Tranisitioning. For those who prefer a hands-on activity, Marine Corps Scrapbooking will be an available option during the second two sessions.

We've added a Benefit Dinner on Saturday evening to replace our formal dinner. Tickets to the Benefit Dinner are included in the conference registration fee. The dinner will be semi-formal (dress blues for Marines) and we'll be inviting guests and supporters from around the Washington, DC area to attend the benefit dinner with our conference attendees.

Our Team Marine Parents™ kickoff is scheduled for the weekend of the conference, Saturday morning, April 19. Team Marine Parents has been an extremely successful outreach project of Marine Parents and we're looking forward to involving folks at the conference this year as well.

We will have a few exibitors, book sales, authors' hall, MarineParents.com Displays, and Our Heroes' Exhibit on Saturday. The Silent Auction will take place during the Benefit Dinner on Saturday evening along with our keynot speaker, Colonel Matthew Bogdanos.

We look forward to seeing you in Washington, DC in April 2008! Be sure to make your hotel reservations now! The Cherry Blossom Days will be fast upon us and the hotels in the area will sell out!