The Pawlentys touched down Wednesday at the Army Aviation Support Facility in St. Cloud to announce that the only impending cut to the First Lady’s Military Family Care Initiative is the first two words of its name. The Web-based program will expand in preparation for the deployment of hundreds of Minnesota National Guard troops to the Middle East next year.

The National Guard’s Beyond the Yellow Ribbon program has stepped in to run the website, which serves as a registry for organizations looking to help military families with services such as child care, financial advice or repair of a leaky faucet.

The expanded program allows businesses to register and alert military families that they are willing to provide discounted or free services to help them.

“It’s a tool to link up the great Minnesota good energy with military families who need it,” Pawlenty told her audience.

When she finished, Gov. Pawlenty stepped to the microphone.

“Businesses — take this opportunity to list yourselves, to say, ‘We are here if a family needs us,’ ” Pawlenty said.

The Military Family Care Initiative was launched seven years ago when Maj. Gen. Larry Shellito said increasing numbers of deployments were “creating issues.”

“The number one concerns of many soldiers were, ‘Take care of my family, and I’ll be OK,’ ” Shellito recalled.

The website lists almost 300 organizations statewide that offer assistance to military families, particularly during deployment.

“The initiative has been fantastic,” said Deborah Brumbaugh, who runs a new Family Assistance Center in St. Cloud. Like the nine other FACs in the state, the St. Cloud center connects military families with services such as financial counseling or support groups.

Often, said Deb St. Sauver, who has multiple family members in the armed services, neighbors and friends offer to help but don’t really mean it.

“This connects families to people who have already made the decision to help,” said St. Sauver, who works with the FAC at Camp Ripley. “There are so many good people in our communities who want to do something.”

The program will become especially important as about 2,700 Minnesota National Guard Soldiers join the 500 already deployed worldwide next year.

Assistance is not limited to families of National Guard members.

It’s available to all branches of the military including people like a Coast Guard Reserve member St. Sauver knows who has been deployed to help with cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP oil spill.