• How Can BSF Help Military Families? Tell Us. | 02/05/2010 - 01:07

    Blue Star Families needs your help.  We want to know how we can make BSF better for you.  We want to hear your ideas for helping military families.

    And we're going to enter you into a drawing for helping us!  Between now and April 1st, everyone who signs up for our mailing list will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate.

    Even if you've already signed up on our website, you can enter here again.  In fact, we encourage you to do so.

    Blue Star Families Gift Card Giveaway

    Blue Star Families is giving away a $50 Target or iTunes gift card!  To enter, fill out the form below and tell us how we can make BSF work for you.

    join our mailing list
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     Please click here for the full BSF Privacy Statement and Terms of Use.

    Terms: The BSF Gift Card Giveaway is sponsored by Blue Star Families, Inc.  Only one entry per person is allowed.  Contest ends April 1, 2010.  The prize will be awarded before April 8, 2010.  Only residents of the Unites States may enter.  You must be 18 or older to enter.  No purchase is necessary and you may enter the drawing without filling out the online form by sending a 3x5 card labeled with "BSF Giveaway" to Blue Star Families, PO Box 6811, 7676 Richmond Hwy, Alexandria, VA 22306.  You must include your full name, date of birth and a contact phone number or email on the 3x5 card.  Questions?  Email NewMedia@BlueStarFam.org.  Void where prohibited.

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  • This Emotional Life on PBS | 01/04/2010 - 21:14

    This Emotional LifeBlue Star Families members, 
     
    Tune in tonight to watch the first installment of "This Emotional Life" on your local PBS station.  Blue Star Families is an advisor to the project and has worked closely with production team on military family outreach.  Check out BSF's listing under resources: http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/resource-finder

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  • Behind the Scenes with Operation Appreciation | 12/01/2009 - 01:54

    Operation AppreciationBSF members in the Tidewater region of Virginia - Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake - have been working hard on Operation Appreciation.  We thought we'd give you a sneak peak of what happens behind the scenes to get your letters of appreciation out to service members, veterans, parents, military spouses and children.

    Remember, if you'd like to send thanks to a military family, we'd love to hear from you.  If you're part of a military family and would like to receive letters, sign up as a BSF member!  If you are already a BSF member and are interested in helping out or distributing correspondence to military families in your area, please contact us at members@bluestarfam.org.  Check out the Operation Appreciation page for more information.

     

    Operation Appreciation

    Boxes and boxes of cuteness!  This drawing and letter is from a 2nd grader in Baltimore County, MD.

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  • BSF Celebrates Veterans Day with Michelle Obama and Dr. Biden | 11/12/2009 - 22:47

    Mission ServeOn Wednesday, Blue Star Families joined with Service Nation to celebrate Veterans Day, write letters for BSF's Operation Appreciation, and pack hundreds of thank you care packages for the families of deployed service members. 

    Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden were on hand to help launch Mission Serve, a network of 36 initiatives partnering military and civilian service organizations to support the needs of our troops, veterans and military families.

    Here are the remarks of BSF founder, Kathy Roth-Douquet, explaining more about the Veterans Day event:

    Two months ago today, on 9/11, I sent my husband to Afghanistan for a year. It’s the fourth combat deployment of my daughter Sophie’s eleven years. She’s seen seven schools during her daddy’s absences too – hers is the life of a military child. She - and I - are a different kind of veterans of today’s war. We’re unspeakably proud of my husband, but there’s no hiding that its hard too. The group I’m involved with – Blue Star Families, and all these groups here, are about solutions for the hard parts of military life. In Blue Star Families we believe as Service Nation does that solutions come in part from our own action, and it comes from the help of the larger community. Many of you here today have helped us with that – packing our ThxBox to the families of deployed servicemembers – these today will go to Kansas National Guard, Virginian individual augmentees, and to North Carolina regular families. The Operation Appreciation letters you all are writing today will go around the country, including to the shaken community of Fort Hood. MissionServe has shown wonderful leadership in helping groups like mine connect to those who care in the larger community – in ways that makes us all activists, all agents in our own solutions. Its terribly fitting that we celebrate those partnerships today, on Veterans Day, a day that recognizes Americans – veterans – who serve so selflessly. Here’s just a smattering of the partnerships engendered by the leadership of Be The Change:

    Blue Star Families is partnering with PBS to create reintegration toolkits for families, ones we packed in the ThxBoxes today, and to connecting Greater DC Cares to the National Guard community around the Capitol region. Student Veterans of America are joining with Big Brothers Big Sisters to mentor youth. American Legion Auxiliary is engaging with Operation Homefront’s adopt a military family for the holidays programs. Sierra Club is partnering both with the National Military Family Association’s Operation Purple® to offer a free week of summer camp fun for military kids with parents who have been, are currently, or will be deployed, and with Armed Services YMCA to provide post-deployment family reintegration camping trips. MCEC and America’s Promise Alliance are working with military-connected schools to ensure their kids are adequately represented in the Gallup Student Poll, a nationwide survey of 5th through 12th graders measuring hope, engagement, and well-being.

    Thank you all for being here today, for caring, and serving.

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  • Weekly News Round-Up for October 27, 2009 | 10/27/2009 - 21:55

    BSF-logoFINAL71509.jpg

    Weekly News Round-Up

    All the Latest in Everything Blue Star Families               

    Tuesday, October 27, 2009

    HEADLINES - Welcome to our newest Board Member Connie Milstein!  iParticipate is out with a new Public Service Announcement featuring Matthew McConaughey thanking military families for their service.  Check out all the Freebies and Discounts for military families below!

    Remember, if you want BSF info and links to articles and events more than once a week, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and check out our Blue Star Families Blog.

    If you received our Weekly News Round-Up from a friend or co-worker, please join us today.  Blue Star Families is an exciting new way for military family members from all ranks and services (and our supporters!) to Connect, Support, and Empower one another.  Just go to the JOIN US page on our site BlueStarFam.org.

    There's a lot of excitement about Blue Star Families and the best way to make sure you are in the middle of it all is to join your local chapter.  Just shoot Vivian a note at members@bluestarfam.org, and she'll get you connected.

    Enjoy! Heidi & the Blue Star Families Team

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  • Things I wish I knew when... | 10/26/2009 - 23:22

    CompassNow that I can look back on almost 4 months as a military spouse, there are a lot of things I wish I knew about the military when I got married.  The thing that would have helped the most was a list of things I should do, now that I am a military spouse.  My husband was not much help, because it’s a little different being a spouse than a sailor, and, you know, he does work all day.  So I was on my own.  I wanted to share some resources that were very valuable to me in my quest to figure out what being a military spouse is all about:

    - COMPASS. This is an introductory class for Navy Spouses (I know they have a similar one for Marines and imagine the other branches have one too), but you don’t have to be brand new to take it. In fact, the spouses in my class ranged from one month of marriage (me) to 28 years.  It was amazing!  Experienced, enthusiastic spouses teaching other spouses the ins and outs of military life.  It was a lot of information to absorb, but you come away with a ton of resources and websites, phone numbers, etc.  I highly recommend it, and you can check out the website here.

    - FFSC.  The Fleet and Family Support Center is really your go-to place for questions and help.  I would not hesitate to visit or call!  They also offer a lot of classes ranging from childcare to car buying to job searching, and the employees are helpful and friendly.  One great example of what they do: when my husband (then fiancee) was first activated from the Reserves, a FFSC representative called me each month to check in and see if I needed anything- now that's service!

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  • Weekly News Round-Up for October 13, 2009 | 10/14/2009 - 05:00

    Weekly News Round-Up Oct. 13

     Tuesday, October 13, 2009

    BSF
     
    Welcome to our new Advisory Board members Deborah Mullen and Babette Maxwell!   Deborah Mullen is the wife of Adm. Michael Mullen who is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Babette Maxwell is one of the founders and the Executive Editor of Military Spouse magazine.
     
    Remember, if you want BSF info and links to articles and events more than once a week, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and check out our Blue Star Families Blog.
     
    If you received our Weekly News Round-Up from a friend or co-worker, please join us today.  Blue Star Families is an exciting new way for military family members from all ranks and services (and our supporters!) to Connect, Support, and Empower one another.  Just go to the JOIN US page on our site BlueStarFam.org.
     
    There's a lot of excitement about Blue Star Families and the best way to make sure you are in the middle of it all is to join your local chapter.  Just shoot Vivian a note at members@bluestarfam.org, and she'll get you connected.
     
    Enjoy! Heidi & the Blue Star Families Team
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  • Introducing Myself | 10/02/2009 - 09:25

    Navy ReservesHello to all the military spouses out there!  I am not only new to BSF, but new to the military experience, and I thought that for my first post I would introduce myself and give you a little background information about me.

    I have been a Navy Reserve spouse since July 3 of this year.  My husband is a Reservist (and former Active Duty) who is serving an IA tour in...Little Creek, Virginia.  I know.  We are so lucky that it’s not Iraq or Afghanistan, and my heart goes out to those of you in that situation.  I will be the first to admit that my husband is not your typical sailor, even with 13 years in the service.  He has never been deployed.  He has never been on sea duty.  And he has been a Reservist for the last 9 years, so his (and our) military experience is a little unusual, compared to his friends and his co-workers.

    Although I am new to the Navy, I do have a brother who recently left the Army’s infantry and had deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, and my brother-in-law is also in the Army, with one Iraq deployment under his belt.  So I have a bit of experience sending packages, worrying, and missing my family member - even though it was not my husband.

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  • Interview with Tara Crooks, Founder of Army Wife Network | 09/15/2009 - 21:38

    Army Wife Networkby BSF member, Anita Tedaldi.  You can find more about Anita at her website, Ovolina.com.

    1.       Your story is inspiring to all military wives. I remember a couple of years ago when you started out with Army wife talk radio and had a few listeners – could you imagine being followed by thousands and becoming as successful as you have been?

    [Tara Crooks] Absolutely did not see this coming! I started Army Wife Talk Radio, as you know, as a hobby. I never imagined I would make this “job” a career. I love what I do though and am very passionate about it. Perhaps that is why it just “happened.”

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  • Frustrated by Having to Register to VOTE Every Time You Move? Tell Us All About It! | 08/26/2009 - 13:33

    vote04Frustrated by Having to Register to VOTE Every Time You Move?  Tell Us All About It!

     

    Blue Star Families wants to identify the special challenges that military members and their families face when struggling to vote and fully participate in our government.  Help us by completing the BSF Voter Registration survey.  We are interested in knowing:

     

    • How often you have had to register to vote?
    • What kinds of problems you have had voting – either in person or via absentee? Why aren’t you registered to vote?
    •  

    We want to share our military family stories with key policy makers and we need your help.

     

    It will take fewer than 10 minutes for you to complete the online survey.  PLEASE DO IT TODAY!

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Operation Appreciation


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