Winning the Military Child of the Year Award Made Me A Better Person
Winning the 2024 Military Child of the Year® Award for the Air Force changed me. It gave me confidence and opportunity, and it made me feel appreciated as a military child.
I’m grateful to all of Operation Homefront’s generous sponsors for making military children feel seen for our own accomplishments and not just for what our parents have sacrificed.
During the trip to Washington, D.C., with all seven of the Military Child of the Year (MCOY) winners last spring, we had the amazing experience of going to Audi Stadium where the D.C. United soccer team plays. Seeing our names on jerseys and seeing a big sign for us on the field made us feel appreciated, and we appreciated each other.
Because of MCOY, I now feel empowered to talk about what I experienced as a military child, and I’ve found more people who relate to me. Before MCOY, I was way more reserved and quieter about my story of my family’s grief from a terrorist bombing that took my mother’s life when I was 9 and left my father and my three siblings and me badly injured.
“Operation Homefront and Military Child of the Year made me a different person for the better.” – Noelani Martinez, 2024 Military Child of the Year
Now I have the strength to speak out to other military children about their challenges and how that relates to teenage depression. In June, I will join my father for a speaking engagement at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. He will share his journey, and I will share mine.
Being a MCOY recipient even made me a rock star for a night when I got to play drums on “Smooth” by Santana with a professional band on a Carnival Cruise Lines weeklong Caribbean cruise. The cruise was one of the prizes for each MCOY winner and their family.
Playing with a professional band was nerve-racking and exciting, and it affirmed for me that I want to study music and keep creating music that expresses my feelings and my story.
I would have never been able to experience such a big opportunity had it not been for Operation Homefront and Military Child of the Year.
Operation Homefront and MCOY made me a different person for the better.
