First Lady Michelle Obama Joins Military Families for Harry Potter Screening

This morning, First Lady Michelle Obama was at the Naval Air Station Oceana Aerotheater in Virginia Beach, Virginia with military families for a screening of Warner Brothers' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two. The screening is part of the Joining Forces Movie Series, where some of our country’s biggest movie studios are offering special screenings for military families at bases all across America. President Obama kicked off the Joining Forces Movie Series with a screening of Disney’s Cars 2 at the White House last month. Here is what some of the participants had to say about the event:

Today, before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two began, the First Lady had a message for the service members and their families:

I wanted to be here today because there’s something that I want to say to all of you, and I’ve been saying this a lot, and it’s simple, but it’s thank you. 

 Thank you to all the moms and to all the dads that we have here today.  Yay for moms and dads.  (Applause.)  I want to thank you, for those of you who wear our uniform, and thank you to all of you who don’t wear the uniform and serve, because no matter which group you fall into, all of you are serving our country, and we are so incredibly proud of you, and we want to thank you.  We can’t thank you enough, we cannot thank you enough for everything that you’re doing, the sacrifices that you’re making to serve this country.

The First Lady also spoke directly to the kids in the audience:

Over the past several years, I’ve had the privilege of meeting military kids across this country, so I know how extraordinary all of you all are.  I’ve seen it.  And I know that the challenges are that you face –- and there are many.  So many of you have had to learn to live with moving a lot, right, picking up, moving for your third, or fourth, fifth school, starting new schools again and again, right?  That's not always easy.  But you do it -- having to make new friends everywhere you go, right; being apart from your mom or your dad or someone special in your life for months on end because they’ve been deployed, right? ...That's not easy.

 But I also know that these experiences in your life have given you all qualities and abilities that not everyone gets to develop at your age.  These experiences have made you stronger.  That, I know.  And I’ve seen it.  These experiences have made you wiser and more mature.  And these experiences are giving you skills that you will need to succeed in school and in life. 

 And young people like you and families like the ones here today have inspired Jill Biden and I to start this wonderful new initiative that we’re calling Joining Forces.  This is a nationwide campaign that Jill and I are working on to rally America around all of you families -- your children, your parents, and all those who are supporting you along the way.  We want this country to recognize and honor and support all of you and everything that you do and have given to this country.