LEOMINSTER — The Blue Star Mothers of Massachusetts, Chapter 1, gathered at the Leominster Veterans Center on Friday to do some charitable work in the season of giving – assembling care packages to be sent to military all over the world to arrive in time for the holidays.
Over 100 boxes packed with toiletries, goodies, and more are being shipped to active-duty military deployed overseas and stateside. Besides the packages sent to soldiers in the U.S., destinations include ships in the Mediterranean, Guam, South Korea, Japan, Cuba, and Kuwait, to name a few.
Sharon Bouchard helped organize and facilitate the annual packing event that is sponsored by the local Blue Star Mothers chapter, “mothers who have children serving active duty in the armed forces or have children who are veterans who have been honorably discharged.”
She said several community businesses, organizations, and groups contributed as sponsors, such as AIS in Leominster who covered the cost of 100 candy packs made special for the care packages by Westborough-based BORO Sugar Shack, which provides paid work opportunities for special needs students.
The Blue Star Mothers were joined by family and friends, Girl Scouts troops, veterans, the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter, Gold Star Wife and City Councilor Claire Freda, Veterans Services Director Rick Voutour, and community members who all pitched in to help.
Blue Star Mother Cie Morin was there, a longtime Fitchburg resident and graduate of Fitchburg High School who has a 22-year-old son in the U.S. Air Force.
“It’s important for communities to come together around children, even as they grow into adults,” she said. “The Blue Star Mothers are about supporting our kids and each other while they’re away from home.”
Her friend Jenifer Knowlton brought her granddaughter Leah Rodriguez, 8, along to help pack up the care packages, a kind gesture not lost on Morin.
“She is extremely supportive of the troops,” Morin said of her friend. “She always has since my brother was in Iraq, and now she’s bringing her granddaughter to volunteer. She’s a wonderful person.”
Morin is also involved with Fostering Change, Inc., the Leominster-based nonprofit organization that provides foster children of all ages with resources they need to succeed in life. The Fostering Change board member said she is “looking for active-duty military members who joined aging out of or growing up in foster care.”
“If they didn’t grow up with a family that means that when they join the military, they will have very little support and as the Blue Star Mothers of America, that means that we support all of our active duty, even those that may not have mothers,” Morin said.
Morin said her military son Tyler Boucher has been volunteering at the Veterans Center in Leominster “since he was a very little boy” and shared a photo of him helping pack up the military boxes many years ago. In fact, the proud mother said that most of her son’s college scholarships for St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia were for volunteering, not sports.
“He got a lot of support and encouragement in his philanthropy since he was a kid,” she said. “When kids are shown it’s good to help and be a part of this stuff, to work generationally, it really helps the kid prosper.”