A three-year-old from Andover has been chosen from more than a hundred children to feature in a national charity calendar which shines a light on the unique experiences of military children during the last 12 months.
Peter Thackery, who’s Dad Will serves with the British Army in Andover, will feature as the June entry the Little Troopers ‘Through Our Eyes’ 2021 calendar. Peter, who is known as Petey by his family, is pictured trying on his Dad’s helmet while he was helping him pack for his first deployment overseas. Will was deployed to Iraq in September for six months.
Petey’s photo will appear alongside other heart-warming photos and stories of real-life military children as seen through their eyes. The calendar also includes a monthly positive message from a celebrity who has either served in the military or grown-up as a military child. Celebrities featured include Mark Ormrod MBE, Colonel Dame Kelly Holmes, Jordan North, Joanna Lumley and Andy McNab. Petey’s photo will appear alongside a message from Jenny Eclair.
Petey’s mum, Charlotte, comments: “This is the first time that Petey’s Dad has been deployed so it’s been a bit daunting and sad for Petey and his sister, but we are all so proud. Petey loves dressing up in his Dad’s army uniform and helmet and he’s been wearing his replica helmet from the tank museum every day. We’ve also been using some of the Little Troopers resources to help the children including the Little Troopers separation pack.
“As autumn is our favourite time of year, we also collected conkers and leaves and stuck these on paper to make a replica fairy tree of the one in our garden and took photos of our trees and sent these to Daddy so that he could enjoy a bit of an English autumn.”
Louise Fetigan, founder of Little Troopers, comments: “2020 has been a challenging year for children generally, but lots military children have carried extra weight on their shoulders due to cancelled postings, extended deployments and other pressures.
“Petey’s photo and the other images in the calendar really capture some of the highs and lows of military life and we hope that by sharing these stories, other military children will see that there are lots of Little Troopers in the world who share similar experiences and are part of this very special community of amazing and resilient young people.”
The Little Troopers 2021 calendar is now on sale costing £9.99 with all proceeds helping Little Troopers to continue providing fundamental resources and initiatives to support military children.
Little Troopers has had a busy 2020 following the launch of its Little Troopers Letters pack for service children who are due to move home soon and wish to keep in touch with a close friend they will be leaving behind. The charity has also just launched a free secondary school resource hub for teachers to support older military children in school and is planning a primary school workshop roadshow in 2021. For more information visit www.littletroopers.net
