thedrifter
02-25-07, 05:18 AM
Feb 25, 2007
Star performance
Blue Star Mothers support troops, families
By Anna L. Griffin TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
agriffin@telegram.com
LEOMINSTER— It is a role they did not volunteer for. The choice was made for them when a son or daughter joined the military.
“Be prepared, Mom, because I may not come back,” Linda Tackett of Fitchburg, mother of Army Maj. Matthew Tackett, recalled her son saying.
“He’s proud of his military service, and so am I,” Mrs. Tackett said. Her son joined the ROTC program while attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and decided to make the military his career.
While he fights for his country, his mother and many other mothers are enlisted to fight a different war on the home front.
“I thank God for the Blue Star Mothers,” said Mrs. Tackett about an organization that chartered its first chapter in this state last year. She is the organization’s treasurer.
“This organization has meant so much to me. It’s a source of support I don’t think I could get anywhere else — because we’re all in this together,” Mrs. Tackett said.
Massachusetts Chapter 1 of Blue Star Mothers of America was chartered in July 2006. It is part of the national Blue Star Mothers organization, which was founded by 300 mothers in 1942 and chartered by Congress in 1960.
The group is made up of Massachusetts mothers who have, or had, sons or daughters serving in the U.S. military.
The nonprofit organization supports its members and, by extension, the members’ sons and daughters through projects such as Operation Soldier Recovery, which conducts drives and fundraisers to provide transitional backpacks filled with necessary toiletries, essential clothing and “blankets of hope” for the wounded in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, and the Combat Trauma Unit in Baghdad. The group also provides resources for wounded soldiers who may have suffered emotional trauma.
The group honors soldiers who have died by presenting the Gold Star banner to their mothers and wives.
Members visit hospitals and shelters and participate in events that honor them. They support the National Education for Assistance Dogs — Dogs for Deaf and Disabled nonprofit organization, which provides and trains service dogs for wounded combat veterans, as well as for other people who need service dogs.
“We needed this. It’s as simple as that,” said Sharon Bouchard, one of the founding members and president of the chapter, when asked why the chapter was formed.
“Where do you go? Who do you talk with?” Mrs. Bouchard said. She once had two sons on active duty in the Marines Corps. One son, Barry, 29, is home and was recently appointed to the Leominster Police Department. The other, Scott, 24, is stationed in Pensacola, Fla.
Taking action is empowering, Mrs. Bouchard said.
“The anxiety can really push you,” Mrs. Bouchard said. “That’s why we get together, stay active, work, work and work. You have to keep busy and do something because, otherwise, it would be unbearable.”
On a recent Wednesday evening members and other volunteers gathered at the Leominster Veterans Center, 100 West St., to pack 120 backpacks for injured soldiers. Mrs. Bouchard said that injured soldiers are taken to the hospital in the clothes they were wearing at the time of their injury — oftentimes in bloodied fatigues.
“This is a small comfort for them,” she said. “To have clean pajamas, underwear, toiletries like toothpaste — a little bit of home.”
Donations for the backpacks came from myriad sources, including local businesses, individuals, and school and civic organizations. Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill, 251 North Main St., held a fundraising event. For $1 people could put their name on a Blue Star: 1,800 stars were donated.
A table filled with homemade pizza, coffeecakes, chocolate chip cookie bars and “boxes of Joe” stood empty, while volunteers buzzed around the room, making sure their mission was completed so that no one who needed a small package from home would be denied. Tucked into the backpacks for the trip were handwritten notes in the form of cards and letters, such as the one written by a young student, signed simply Alyssa, from St. Bernard Elementary School, Fitchburg, on blue-lined notebook paper.
The reader can easily tell each letter of the missive was painstakingly placed on the page with careful attention to the margins and detail to the punctuation, but the neatness of the note is outshone by the heartfelt emotion expressed in it.
“Dear Soldier: Hello, my name is Alyssa. I am 13 years old. I am in the 8th grade at St. Bernard’s Elementary. My Dad was a Marine who fought in the Persian Gulf War. I don’t know if you have any children or not, but if so, I imagine they must be very proud. It takes a lot of special people to be able to do what you are doing. You are very brave to go over to a country far away from your families to fight for our freedom and to keep us safe.”
Mrs. Bouchard said the notes and cards are among the most popular items for the soldiers, who crave anything from home at a time when they are so distant from it.
“We know they appreciate what we’re doing,” she said.
Information on Blue Star Mothers of America Massachusetts Chapter 1 can be obtained by writing to the organization at: P.O. Box 854, Ayer, MA 01432-1333, by going to the Internet Web site at bluestarmothers.org/ma.php or by sending an e-mail to tinaveves757@hotmail.com.
Ellie
Star performance
Blue Star Mothers support troops, families
By Anna L. Griffin TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
agriffin@telegram.com
LEOMINSTER— It is a role they did not volunteer for. The choice was made for them when a son or daughter joined the military.
“Be prepared, Mom, because I may not come back,” Linda Tackett of Fitchburg, mother of Army Maj. Matthew Tackett, recalled her son saying.
“He’s proud of his military service, and so am I,” Mrs. Tackett said. Her son joined the ROTC program while attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and decided to make the military his career.
While he fights for his country, his mother and many other mothers are enlisted to fight a different war on the home front.
“I thank God for the Blue Star Mothers,” said Mrs. Tackett about an organization that chartered its first chapter in this state last year. She is the organization’s treasurer.
“This organization has meant so much to me. It’s a source of support I don’t think I could get anywhere else — because we’re all in this together,” Mrs. Tackett said.
Massachusetts Chapter 1 of Blue Star Mothers of America was chartered in July 2006. It is part of the national Blue Star Mothers organization, which was founded by 300 mothers in 1942 and chartered by Congress in 1960.
The group is made up of Massachusetts mothers who have, or had, sons or daughters serving in the U.S. military.
The nonprofit organization supports its members and, by extension, the members’ sons and daughters through projects such as Operation Soldier Recovery, which conducts drives and fundraisers to provide transitional backpacks filled with necessary toiletries, essential clothing and “blankets of hope” for the wounded in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, and the Combat Trauma Unit in Baghdad. The group also provides resources for wounded soldiers who may have suffered emotional trauma.
The group honors soldiers who have died by presenting the Gold Star banner to their mothers and wives.
Members visit hospitals and shelters and participate in events that honor them. They support the National Education for Assistance Dogs — Dogs for Deaf and Disabled nonprofit organization, which provides and trains service dogs for wounded combat veterans, as well as for other people who need service dogs.
“We needed this. It’s as simple as that,” said Sharon Bouchard, one of the founding members and president of the chapter, when asked why the chapter was formed.
“Where do you go? Who do you talk with?” Mrs. Bouchard said. She once had two sons on active duty in the Marines Corps. One son, Barry, 29, is home and was recently appointed to the Leominster Police Department. The other, Scott, 24, is stationed in Pensacola, Fla.
Taking action is empowering, Mrs. Bouchard said.
“The anxiety can really push you,” Mrs. Bouchard said. “That’s why we get together, stay active, work, work and work. You have to keep busy and do something because, otherwise, it would be unbearable.”
On a recent Wednesday evening members and other volunteers gathered at the Leominster Veterans Center, 100 West St., to pack 120 backpacks for injured soldiers. Mrs. Bouchard said that injured soldiers are taken to the hospital in the clothes they were wearing at the time of their injury — oftentimes in bloodied fatigues.
“This is a small comfort for them,” she said. “To have clean pajamas, underwear, toiletries like toothpaste — a little bit of home.”
Donations for the backpacks came from myriad sources, including local businesses, individuals, and school and civic organizations. Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill, 251 North Main St., held a fundraising event. For $1 people could put their name on a Blue Star: 1,800 stars were donated.
A table filled with homemade pizza, coffeecakes, chocolate chip cookie bars and “boxes of Joe” stood empty, while volunteers buzzed around the room, making sure their mission was completed so that no one who needed a small package from home would be denied. Tucked into the backpacks for the trip were handwritten notes in the form of cards and letters, such as the one written by a young student, signed simply Alyssa, from St. Bernard Elementary School, Fitchburg, on blue-lined notebook paper.
The reader can easily tell each letter of the missive was painstakingly placed on the page with careful attention to the margins and detail to the punctuation, but the neatness of the note is outshone by the heartfelt emotion expressed in it.
“Dear Soldier: Hello, my name is Alyssa. I am 13 years old. I am in the 8th grade at St. Bernard’s Elementary. My Dad was a Marine who fought in the Persian Gulf War. I don’t know if you have any children or not, but if so, I imagine they must be very proud. It takes a lot of special people to be able to do what you are doing. You are very brave to go over to a country far away from your families to fight for our freedom and to keep us safe.”
Mrs. Bouchard said the notes and cards are among the most popular items for the soldiers, who crave anything from home at a time when they are so distant from it.
“We know they appreciate what we’re doing,” she said.
Information on Blue Star Mothers of America Massachusetts Chapter 1 can be obtained by writing to the organization at: P.O. Box 854, Ayer, MA 01432-1333, by going to the Internet Web site at bluestarmothers.org/ma.php or by sending an e-mail to tinaveves757@hotmail.com.
Ellie