ANGIE MILES: So in what ways do you think you ZE US BENNETT: My energeticness, and they say my face looks like it too.

ANGIE MILES: According to his family, Wade Zeus Bennett is mischievou Zeus carries the legacy of a man he never met in life.

ANGIE MILES: I want you to confess about some of this ZE US BENNETT: Okay.

ANGIE MILES: (laug he's like ANGIE MILES: This little touch of mischief in this otherwise good kid is actually a source of comfort for mother M the woman who never dreamed that her husband would not be coming home from active duty.

Staff Sergeant Kenneth Wade Bennett was on his third tour in Afghanistan when he was killed by an improvised explosive device, an IED, in 2012.

He was just 26 years old, and left behind his wife, his little girl, and his baby boy yet to be born.

ANGIE MILES: Tell me about the day you learned that you had lost Wade.

MANDI BENNET: I think so many of us think it going to happen lik I wasn't actually even notified by the military.

It was another wife that told me.

I remember finally seeing that car pu and my mom saying, "Mandy, they're here."

And I said, "I don't want to answer th And I remember just standing there looking at t just not wanting ju st hoping they wouldn't say a word.

And you know, then they say the wo and you know, you think of every other possible thought, maybe it wasn't him, and then you don't want And the world just really, my life got divided.

It was before and after, and still to this day I stil into oh well that was before I lost my husband, and well this is after I lost my husband.

I mean 11 years later, and that still will, I think, always be a giant division in my life.

ANGIE MILES: On this 11th anniversary of losing Wade, his family remembers, but every day they work hard to keep hi to cherish every good thing about him.

LILA BENNETT: He wanted help people.

I mean that's why he we He also wanted to see things blow up, but he mostly wanted to be there t and I was little, I didn't understand it at the time, but now I understand he wanted really to help people.

He was amazing.

ANGIE MILES: In the years since Wade's passing, the Bennetts say they've received an incredible of love and kindness from individuals who knew Wade.

LILA BENNETT: Like at school when it's like Father's Day, you're supposed to make your da Situations like that and when it's like da Luckily some people from the units will come with me and they'll dance with me and it's just so much fun.

ANGIE MILES: Mandi says the kindness has poured in from strangers as well.

And at the top of that list is A Soldie a Tennessee based nonprofit that remembers the sacrifice of Gold Star Service Members by remembering their families.

A Soldier's Child founder, Daryl Mackin talks about the little boy on the organizati DARYL MACKIN: That boy's Christian Golczynski, and his grandparents were my ne here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

His father was Marine Staff Sergeant M who was killed by Sniper Fire in Iraq March 27th, 2007, which was only about, I think two weeks before he was supposed to come back from his second tour of duty.

ANGIE MILES: Mackin quotes a letter wr by Golczynski explaining why he serv and risked his life for the country.

DARYL MACKIN: He said, "We are warriors and as warriors that have gone before us, we fight and sometimes die so our families don't have to It is our unity that has allowed us to prosper as a nation."

So he asked us, those of us that live in this country free off of the sacrifice of men and women that laid down the lives for our free He says stand beside us.

ANGIE MILES: The idea for A Soldier's Child came to Mackin as he stood in h and was asked this question by Marcus's father.

DARYL MACKIN: He said to me, "Did it matter, and does anybody even care?"

And he left me standing in his garage that night.

I consider myself a Christian patriot.

I love this country and I love the men and women that wear the uniform.

And I thought to myself, and as a that I never thought of the families that were left behind.

(child screaming) >>Go, yeah!

ANGIE MILES: That was the beginning of a that honors thousands of fallen service members by making a commitment to nurture and mentor their children.

ANGIE MILES: What has A Soldier's Child meant for your family?

MANDI BENNETT: So finding out with and all the outdoor camps that the It was really so exciting to see my daughter's face lig the first time I picked her up and how excited she was.

They just blossomed when they were there.

And that's from a mom's standpoint, giving them something I can't.

I don't know how sometimes we to find organizations like this.

ZEUS BENNETT: I like that you get to go out, have no electronics that are distracting you, and have people that you can relate to.

It's just lots of fun.

You get to go out there with that have felt the same experience of ANGIE MILES: A Soldier's Child holds hunting and fishing for Gold Star Children throughout the year.

These experiences are unique as these children are grieving a very specific kind o MANDI BENNETT: It's something that I feel like is so healing in different and they can feel normal for a few days.

They don't have to feel like they have t or be sad because it's not their dad that gets to take 'em hunting for the first time.

'cause they know all the other kids there are also going through this and experiencing AN GIE MILES: And then there are the birthd A Soldier's Child sends specially requested birthday presents to about 250 children each month.

LILA BENNETT: They decorate a package specially for each kid.

And it says And there's fun gifts.

There's really corny d that I always love to laugh at.

It's lots of fun to get that on your birthd ANGIE MILES: Heather von Loh is another Gold Star Parent whose children have benefited from A Soldier's Child.

Her husband Dustin, died of cancer in 2009 after having been exposed to the burn pits in Iraq.

HEATHER VON LOH: We would travel from Nebraska to Tennessee, and it's 15 hours we would drive, and we would come to the camps.

And Grace, my daughter, she absolutely just fell in love with everybody.

And my son, when he started coming to camp, it just really helped him to mature because he is the only boy in our family and he never got a chance to meet his dad, because I was pregnant with him at the time of my husband's death.

After about five years of trav we decided with prayer that it was time to move.

And so here we are.

ANGIE MILES: now Director of Programs for A helping to further the work to reach more Gold Star C Mackin says, the pivotal part of the program is remembrance with honor, DARYL MACKIN: You're honoring these famil and by doing so, celebrating these children's an d giving them that message that you know, we see you, and you're not invisible.

It did matter, we do care.

ANGIE MILES: Mandi Bennett and her chil are among thousands of Gold St receiving that message.

As she shows the precious keepsakes in what she calls her Wade room, she expresses appreciation that others know what she that her husband's life and sacrifice still matter to the country he died to protect, and that their children matter as well.