Linda M. Davidson
Linda Davidson co-founded Our Military Kids in 2004. While she was using her business expertise from her former career at IBM to help a friend organize a military nonprofit organization, she noticed a disturbing trend: When National Guard and Reserve members went overseas, their families suffered a gap in support services. Before 9/11, these soldiers were often sent to help after natural disasters. But deployments to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan brought new problems. Because families of the deployed often did not live close to military bases, they felt isolated. Dips in pay caused by the change from civilian to military duty sometimes forced the elimination of kids’ extracurricular activities at a time they were needed most.
Our Military Kids fills this gap. Linda launched her nonprofit organization in Virginia, then took it national. Seeing the invisible wounds of the children of wounded warriors, she included them, too. Our Military Kids has provided more than 54,000 grants, $25 mil
