NFL Salute to Service Initiative with GilletteLabs

As grieving children make their way forward after losing a parent, each milestone is a reminder that they lost not only a great love from their past, but a great love in their present and future. Parents taught us how to drive, cook, ride a bike, fold laundry, put on makeup, tie a necktie, and shave.

TAPS recognizes how loud the absence of a parent can be in those moments, and we are committed to supporting surviving children during the highs and lows of grief that occur among the natural highs and lows of growing up. Our Military Mentor and Legacy Mentor programs ensure that surviving children always have an added source of encouragement and guidance as they grow. 

Gillette’s latest show of support for the military, veteran, and survivor communities — the GilletteLabs Camo Razor, is a nod — or, appropriately enough, a salute — to service. It also helps TAPS demonstrate one way that we show up for survivors — specifically teen boys — in one of those quieter milestones, learning to shave. 

Teaching teen boys to shave is just one of the many ways Military Mentors provide practical tools to surviving children and teens at Good Grief Camps. Traditionally a special moment shared between father and son, learning to shave is probably not a moment most outside of grief would point to as an especially hard day to face without having dad around, but that is why the TAPS Military Mentor program is so critical. We know that those more intimate, one-on-one rites of passage are some of the hardest parts of growing up as a survivor. They are the moments when it’s most obvious that life is different and great loss swells to fill even the smallest, unseen milestones. 

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