Working to Get Military Families Appreciated in Georgia

By Kari Hoefer Johnson

Marie Matheson knows the sacrifices military members and military families make for freedom and she wants state and local governments to acknowledge those sacrifices, too.

Marie, a Navy mom and a gold star daughter, has seen first-hand the many changes the United States has undergone in it’s attitudes towards the military, especially during the 1970s when many of her friends and family members received a less-than-enthusiastic reception after returning home from Vietnam. So when the results of the Blue Star Families survey were released, Marie was shocked to hear that 94 percent of military families surveyed feel the larger community doesn’t understand or appreciate the sacrifices of military service.

Dismayed by that statistic, Marie knew she should, and could, do something to change it; and as director of the Georgia chapter of BSF that’s what she is doing. In February Marie wrote letters to the governor of Georgia and the mayors of Georgia towns with military bases and asked for a proclamation naming April the “Month of the Military Child.” Seven mayors and city councils responded and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue declared May “Military Families Month.” One mayor took it a step further and proclaimed all of 2009 to be the “Year of the Military Family.” And she has no plans to keep these proclamations to herself.  “They belong to the bases,” she said, so she is currently in the process of personally delivering them.

With the Georgia governor and the Georgia Blue Star Families chapter leading the way on acknowledgement of military families, Marie sent out a challenge to her fellow state directors to follow suit. She has also taken the initiative to contact the state and city governments for states without an active Blue Star Families chapter. Her goal: To have all 50 states publicly acknowledge military families by the end of this year. It is just another step toward her dream of expanding Blue Star Families in Georgia by bringing both military and civilian families together.

Marie says the marriage of civilian and military life is what drew her Blue Star Families. As a state director, she says it is now her job to make sure that the marriage is strong. Among her challenges are having phone calls returned, gaining access to military bases and helping Blue Star Families get known in her state. Marie takes it all in stride. She uses every challenge as an opportunity to learn and to continue to show respect to the military and to military families. “I love my country. I will never fail to remember that my father was willing to sacrifice his life for it. What our soldiers and their families gave—and continue to give—to this country, I will never forget and will always be appreciative of it,” she said.