A new chapter of Blue Star Mothers of America has been established to support active-duty service members, veterans and military families across the region.
Blue Star Mothers of America Inc. VA7 was officially chartered June 17. The chapter serves Henry, Patrick, Franklin and Pittsylvania counties, along with the City of Martinsville.
President Amy Guetler Beal said the nonprofit organization was founded in 1942 during World War II.
“It was just moms serving while their soldiers were serving in any capacity – nursing, homeland security, getting packages together, that sort of thing. It didn’t get fully chartered until 1960. Once it did, it took off,” she said.
Today, Blue Star Mothers has about 6,000 members in more than 200 chapters nationwide.
Beal said membership is open to biological mothers, stepmothers, foster mothers, grandmothers and other women with legal parental ties to someone serving in the U.S. military.
“We get together and what we do is we partner up with our veterans and we also do things on our own as well. We don’t just do for our soldiers, our sons and daughters, we do for others. There’s a lot of soldiers serving right now that don’t have family and it’s sad. My son went into the Army, it’ll be 12 years this June that he went in, and I just remember him telling me on the deployments, ‘Mom it’s so sad, so and so isn’t getting packages.’ So, I’d go out and I would get extra stuff together, package it up, and send it to that soldier,” she said.
Beal said she later discovered Blue Star Mothers was already doing the same kind of work.
“I don’t know why I waited 12 years. I wish I had done this sooner,” she said.
In addition to sending care packages to deployed service members, the chapter plans to assist veterans and military families with needs such as food, clothing and utility assistance when possible.
“Whatever they need and whatever we can do. There’s just so much, there’s so many veterans out there that don’t have a lot and it’s heartbreaking, and we’ve got a lot in our area. I think our veterans take up eight to nine percent of the population here, so it’s a big number,” Beal said.
Mental health also will be a focus of the chapter’s work.
“Of course there’s a lot of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)” in the military. “So we kind of are just going to throw ourselves around, and help in any capacity that we can in regards to our military,” she said.
The chapter also hopes to recognize a local Gold Star mother each year on Gold Star Mother’s Day.
“That’s something you don’t want to be. A Gold Star mom is someone who has lost a soldier. What we want to do is once a year on Gold Star Mother’s Day, September 27, we want to honor a Gold Star mother. Our goal is we don’t want to find one because you never want to be a Gold Star mom, but we do want to honor one a year,” Beal said.
The chapter currently has fewer than a dozen members and meets at 4 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month in the back meeting room at Wright Funeral Service & Crematory in Martinsville.
Women interested in joining can contact Beal at skully168@gmail.com.
“We could use all the moms that we can get. Don’t be afraid to reach out and don’t be shy, we’re just a bunch of military moms that want to help our soldiers as well as other soldiers and our veterans. We’re also a good support group to lean on, especially with what’s going on in the world right now, you know our boys getting deployed everywhere. Sometimes you need an extra shoulder or an extra ear to lean on,” Beal said.
