Military moms organize to offer support and aid

By SALLY BOYD

Gazette Neigh­bors Editor

Moth­ers who have chil­dren serv­ing in the mil­i­tary come from all walks of life and all per­sua­sions — young, old, rich, poor, Catholic, Protes­tant, Repub­li­can and Demo­c­rat — but all have one com­mon thread in com­mon: Fear for their child’s safety and the fam­ily uncer­tainty which mil­i­tary ser­vice brings.

A brand new sup­port group just for those moth­ers — Blue Star Moth­ers — is now meet­ing monthly in Belle­vue. All women of the area, not just Belle­vue, are encour­aged to gather on the third Mon­day of each month at 6 p.m. in the Belle­vue City Coun­cil cham­bers, 3000 Seneca Indus­trial Parkway.

All moth­ers of mil­i­tary per­son­nel — not just those on active duty — are wel­come, stressed Barb Cook, pres­i­dent of the just-chartered orga­ni­za­tion, the Lake Erie Shores Chap­ter of Blue Star Mothers.

“We would love to have women from all around the area — Belle­vue, Clyde, Nor­walk, Fre­mont, Mon­roeville, Port Clin­ton, San­dusky — any­where, join us,” Cook said dur­ing the char­ter­ing cer­e­mony held Mon­day, Jan. 21, in coun­cil chambers.

Cook, who has been the dri­ving force behind the new group, has a son in the Army who deployed to Afghanistan on July 11. Dur­ing a phone call to his mother, he sug­gested she look up the Blue Star Moth­ers. The near­est chap­ter she could find was the Home Front Moms’ Chap­ter 60 in Elyria, where she quickly became involved.

Know­ing there are plenty of other moth­ers like her­self from this area, Cook was deter­mined to start a chap­ter based in Belle­vue, which she seeks to estab­lish as a regional hub for poten­tial mem­bers. She began work­ing the idea in Sep­tem­ber and on Nov. 19, 2012, held the first meet­ing of inter­ested mil­i­tary moms in Belle­vue. The city has offered to let the women gather in the cham­ber office, which they will uti­lize for the imme­di­ate future.

To cre­ate a char­ter required enough mem­bers to fill the five required offices. Cook soon had recruited the nec­es­sary core and on Mon­day, those women were offi­cially sworn in to lead the new Lake Erie Shores Chap­ter. The for­mal cer­e­mony was con­ducted by two state Blue Star Moth­ers offi­cers, Dawn Wood­ings, of Elyria, the Depart­ment of Ohio’s first vice pres­i­dent, who was the installing offi­cer, and Pat Pell, of Huron, a past Depart­ment of Ohio pres­i­dent, who served as chaplain.

Stand­ing before a sign board fea­tur­ing pho­tos of the new mem­bers’ mil­i­tary chil­dren — both sons and sons-in-law — Wood­ings and Pell admin­is­tered the oaths of office to Cook, who will serve a two-year term as pres­i­dent; Con­nie Schaf­fer, vice pres­i­dent; Donna McPeek, record­ing sec­re­tary; Cheri Spur­lock, finan­cial sec­re­tary; and Elaine Brock, treasurer.

Of the group, which includes three addi­tional mem­bers at the moment, one has a son in the Navy and seven have sons in the Army.

“We are a sup­port group,” said Brock.

“How­ever, we will also be doing sev­eral projects, includ­ing prepar­ing care pack­ages, doing com­mu­nity ser­vice and help­ing with the new Fallen Sol­diers Memo­r­ial plaza (located imme­di­ately behind Sub­way on prop­erty donated by Fire­lands Fed­eral Credit Union).”

That plaza was ded­i­cated this past Vet­er­ans Day (Nov. 11) and fea­tures mon­u­ments to local sol­diers who gave their lives in ser­vice to this coun­try, as well as spe­cial pavers pay­ing trib­ute to the city’s for­mer pris­on­ers of war, and smaller pavers hon­or­ing the local many men and women who have served in the military.

“Of course, we hope to gain more mem­bers,” said Cook. “We really do want to include all women from the area.”

Dues for the orga­ni­za­tion are $20 per year. Peo­ple who would like to learn more about the group are encour­aged to call Cook (after 3 p.m.) at 419–681-5832 or con­tact: pres44811@yahoo.com. The group will next meet on Feb. 18.

Posted by Becky Brooks on Jan 26 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.