HOUSTON – May is Military Appreciation Month, a time to recognize the brave men and women who serve our country, but also organizations that support the armed forces and their families.
One of those groups is the Blue Star Moms, who send over 1,200 care packages a year to troops serving in combat zones and overseas.
Gwen Geiser, from their Houston area chapter, shared details on how they’ve been helping during the COVID-19 crisis.
“At the beginning of the pandemic we worked a lot with the Girl Scouts. They would collect the boxes of cookies for us, and then they transfer them to us, and then we will wrap them and send them to our troops in combat zones. We were able to wrap and send around 159 of those cakes to our heroes who are overseas serving for us, “ said Geiser, who is a proud Air Force mom and mentioned that in June they will be picking up and preparing to ship 150 more cases of Girl Scout cookies.
“We received thank you notes and pictures from those who received the packages. The joy on their faces was priceless,” said Geiser, who announced that for anyone who wishes to honor someone actively serving in the military, they will send out a Blue Star garden flag for free, but donations are appreciated to at least cover the cost of postage.
Blue star moms are also supporting each other as parents with children in the military with virtual meetings. The organization has been impacted due to social distancing guidelines, that’s why they need everyone to help them fulfill their mission.
“Just like everyone, we’ve been under restrictions and being Military Appreciation Month, normally we would be out visiting and making events that would give us opportunity for more donations and just awareness so later on we could also get support with donations,” said Geiser.
“What people can do right now is, we’re always accepting donations and we would like people to think about things that would easily can be carried in a backpack and produce very little trash. So individually wrapped kind of things like fruit cups and granola bars and trail mixes, those kinds of things,” said Geiser, who also encourages monetary donations.
“We spend more than $20,000 dollars a year in postage alone,” she said.
If you wish to donate money, or to see a list of items you can donate for care packages, click here.
To see Geiser’s complete interview, watch the video above.