07/19/2026
🇺🇸 ❤️ POV: Years ago I was an active duty Airman pregnant with my second child. My husband was deployed around the world from me and I was working full time in a mental health clinic while struggling with my own. I was chasing after a toddler working long hours and was not myself. When the holidays hit, I didn’t have the energy to decorate or feel the spirit of the season to put up a tree. I didn’t have the community I needed to pull me out of my own shell and help me create a holiday tradition that year for my kids. I had the most supportive work center and no one knew what I was going through.
🎄 When I started Dec’ the Deployment®, it began from a place of need in knowing what I went through and that I was not alone. Clinical mental health care would not have helped me put up my Christmas tree or physically pull it out of the attic. It would not have introduced me to new friends who could become like family to help, or inspire me to connect with others through creative outlets to better cope together.
🤝 Our peer-to-peer holistic model was created for this and it is called Camaraderie in CHAOS ®. It was built around what worked to meet people where they were at in their struggle to improve morale and well-being. An innovative program full of quirky, creative and fun experiences that reframe thinking around intentional human connection, and shared human life-skills. Dec’ the Deployment® is our holiday outreach program.
💭 We stopped by the storage unit this week to plan out a big vision we have a few months to organize in time for the holidays. Opening up the unit lost in time got us lost in capturing a moment. These pieces have been in multiple photoshoots, homes, and up-cycled countless times. These kids have been involved in all of it since they were born. Holding onto some memories in a storage unit and writing this post reminds me why the mission is so needed.
💥 🌎 The world needs more morale, alternative systems to mental health, and service members and their families need more community support. Especially during deployment seasons.
-Katelyn Tinsley, Founder, Owner and Proud United States Air Force Veteran