Blue Star Stories

Welcome to our blog where you'll find the stories from the lives of our Blue Star Families.

Tackling Food Insecurity: A Mission that Hits Home

November 12, 2021

Tackling Food Insecurity: A Mission that Hits Home Meet Kelley. She’s an Air Force spouse, mom of two, and just joined the Blue Star Families team as the Food Insecurity DEPLOY Fellow, thanks to the support of Amazon. With 13 years of service in the military, Kelley has seen the struggles military families face when…

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Blue Star Community Changemaker: Meet Jamie

November 10, 2021

Blue Star Community Changemaker: Meet Jamie Delivered by CSX Pride in Service When the draft ended in 1973, women represented 8% of officers and just 2% of enlisted service members. Since then, the makeup of the military has become increasingly diverse. Now, 16.5%(1) of all active-duty service members are women. With continued policy changes opening…

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Honor National Veterans Small Business Week with Blue Star Families

November 3, 2021

Honor National Veterans Small Business Week with Blue Star Families Written By: JPMorgan Chase & Co. DEPLOY Fellow Brittney Aladetohun According to the 2020 Annual Business Survey, nearly 6% of U.S businesses are Veteran-owned, and the majority are small businesses. While this makes up a notable share of the economy, Veterans still face challenges when…

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Hitting the Ground Running with Blue Star Welcome Week

November 2, 2021

Hitting the Ground Running with Blue Star Welcome Week Why did we start Blue Star Welcome Week? Because each year, approximately 600,000 military-connected individuals move, causing instability and often devastating feelings of isolation for the family members who move with them. These family members are serving and sacrificing alongside their service member every single day.…

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Making it Count: Blue Star Welcome Week Helps Fight the Isolation Felt Move After Move

November 2, 2021

Making it Count: Blue Star Welcome Week Helps Fight the Isolation Felt Move After Move While Blue Star Welcome Week 2021 is in the rearview mirror, there’s still important work to do to help turn this incredible moment into a movement! The reason is, military-connected families are serving and sacrificing daily, all year long. And,…

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Family Volunteer Day: Meet Mitch

November 1, 2021

Family Volunteer Day: Meet Mitch Did you know that only one in four active-duty family respondents to Blue Star Families’ 2020 Military Family Lifestyle Survey feel a sense of belonging to their local civilian community? In fact, one-third say they have no friends in the local community and nobody they can ask for a favor.…

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Paying it Forward: Connecting with Military Families One Starbucks Coffee at a Time

October 25, 2021

Paying it Forward: Connecting with Military Families One Starbucks Coffee at a Time Did you participate in Blue Star Welcome Week? If you did, thank you! If you’re a military or Veteran family, hopefully you made a connection, started a friendship, learned something about your new home, or just took a moment to take a…

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Helping Those in Need: Welcoming Our Afghan Allies

October 22, 2021

Helping Those in Need: Welcoming Our Afghan Allies During Blue Star Welcome Week 2021, we spent time welcoming military and Veteran families to their new communities across the country. Why? Because approximately 600,000 military-connected families move every single year, leaving service members, spouses, and their children to start over in unfamiliar towns without any network…

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Food Insecurity, Poverty, and Military and Veteran Life

October 18, 2021

Food Insecurity, Poverty, and Military and Veteran Life By Kelley Klor, Amazon Food Insecurity DEPLOY Fellow Food insecurity is a topic filling newsfeeds right now, but the issue is not new, and the military and Veteran community is not insulated from it. According to Blue Star Families’ 2020 Military Family Lifestyle Survey Comprehensive Report, as…

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