2008 Woodie Awards
Blue Star Mothers provide aid, comfort for soldiers who are serving overseas
Rebecca Kelley
Issue date: 9/11/07 Section: Front Page
On the sixth anniversary of September 11, the nation will focus on, in addition to the events of that day, the United States military. For members of a local group-Blue Star Mothers of America-the troops are never far from their minds.
For Sarah Pace, president of the Oxford chapter of Blue Star Mothers, thoughts of her son Zack Pace, a 2002 Miami University graduate serving in the army, are currently piled up in her living room.
"I have 28 pounds of coffee sitting in my living room right now," Pace said.
Blue Star Mothers, in addition to serving as a support service, creates packages to send to troops oversees. One favorite item: coffee.
To aid in donations, the Starbucks in uptown Oxford has a box where customers can purchase a pound of coffee and donate it directly to the troops.
"Starbucks has been terrific," Pace said.
The history of Blue Star Mothers, the donations of coffee and other items and the group's main purpose all originated much earlier than the current military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As a non-partisan national organization of mothers with children in the military, Blue Star Mothers began during World War II in Flint, Mich.
"So many people were deployed in World War II that basically it was the family members left at home," Pace said, wearing her Blue Star Mothers lapel pin on her McCullough-Hyde Memorial
Hospital ID badge.
Marilyn Ballmann, a mother whose son was serving in the military, formed Oxford's chapter of Blue Star Mothers in fall 2006.
"She was supporting her son," Pace said. "It's what she felt she needed to do."
According to Pace, the organization originally provided mothers of military personnel with a way to stay involved with their family members who were overseas. A large aspect of the Blue Star Mothers is helping support troops through care packages and organizing scholarships for children of fallen soldiers.
Blue Star Mothers are best known for distributing their blue star banner. When a soldier is deployed, the family receives a banner with a blue star to hang in their window and it is removed when the soldier returns home safely. The families of fallen soldiers receive a gold star banner to commemorate their children.
For Sarah Pace, president of the Oxford chapter of Blue Star Mothers, thoughts of her son Zack Pace, a 2002 Miami University graduate serving in the army, are currently piled up in her living room.
"I have 28 pounds of coffee sitting in my living room right now," Pace said.
Blue Star Mothers, in addition to serving as a support service, creates packages to send to troops oversees. One favorite item: coffee.
To aid in donations, the Starbucks in uptown Oxford has a box where customers can purchase a pound of coffee and donate it directly to the troops.
"Starbucks has been terrific," Pace said.
The history of Blue Star Mothers, the donations of coffee and other items and the group's main purpose all originated much earlier than the current military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As a non-partisan national organization of mothers with children in the military, Blue Star Mothers began during World War II in Flint, Mich.
"So many people were deployed in World War II that basically it was the family members left at home," Pace said, wearing her Blue Star Mothers lapel pin on her McCullough-Hyde Memorial
Hospital ID badge.
Marilyn Ballmann, a mother whose son was serving in the military, formed Oxford's chapter of Blue Star Mothers in fall 2006.
"She was supporting her son," Pace said. "It's what she felt she needed to do."
According to Pace, the organization originally provided mothers of military personnel with a way to stay involved with their family members who were overseas. A large aspect of the Blue Star Mothers is helping support troops through care packages and organizing scholarships for children of fallen soldiers.
Blue Star Mothers are best known for distributing their blue star banner. When a soldier is deployed, the family receives a banner with a blue star to hang in their window and it is removed when the soldier returns home safely. The families of fallen soldiers receive a gold star banner to commemorate their children.
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