LAUREL – Earlier this week, the Budweiser Clydesdales visited Laurel, Maryland, delivering two Folds of Honor scholarships to children whose father was killed in action in Iraq, the Baltimore Sun reports.

"It's our most sincere honor to bring a little light into an inherently dark situation," said Maj. Dan Rooney, founder of the Folds of Honor Foundation, to Andre and Tamila Lake. The Lakes’ father, Sergeant First class Floyd D. Lake, died in Baghdad while supporting Iraqi Freedom on January 20, 2007, when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter he and 11 of his fellow Soldiers were in was ambushed and hit by small-arms fire while enroute to Liberty Base. He was 43.

"We're grateful for the sacrifice your family has made. We're behind you and we're with you,” Maj. Rooney told the Lake children.

Rooney arrived at the Lake’s house on a wagon drawn by eight Clydesdales, presenting the Lakes with two $5,000 scholarship checks.

Founded in 2007, the Folds of Honor Foundation provides scholarships and other opportunities for military veterans and their families. Since 2010, Budweiser has raised more than $5 million for the Folds of Honor Foundation and provided more than 1,000 educational scholarships to the families of soldiers killed or disabled in service.  This year alone, the brand will donate up to $1.5 million from the sale of Budweiser (including $500,000 from the Anheuser-Busch Foundation) to Folds of Honor, which will provide 300 scholarships to military families across the country. 

Linda Lake said her husband would have been happy, "knowing someone is out there looking out for his kids now that he's not here."

"He was very family oriented," she said. "He was all about keeping the family together."

Rooney said of the more than one million dependents of service members who have been killed or disabled, 87% don't receive federal assistance for education.

"We're leaving families behind in epic proportions on the field of battle," he said. "We all have a debt to give back to military families like these."