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WELCOME TO BLUE STAR MOMS

The Blue Star Moms, Chapter 101 (established November 2001), is a support through service organization in the San Francisco East Bay area located in Danville, CA. We have over 150 members from all over Contra Costa and Alameda Counties. We are moms, joining together to share our pride, our devotion and our worries for our sons and daughters currently serving in all branches of the Armed Forces of the United States, and our sons and daughters who are now veterans. We first came together shortly after the terrorist's attacks on 9/11/2001. We are an official chapter of the Blue Star Mothers of America, a group who formed during World War II.

HOW TO JOIN OUR CHAPTER

Membership is open to mothers or stepmothers who have sons and/or daughters currently serving, or who have been medically or honorably discharged from the five service branches of the United States, as well as the National Guard, Reserve and the Merchant Marine. For more information about joining our local Danville, CA chapter, contact us at membership@bluestarmoms.org

Associate members include all other family members, spouses and friends of those who are currently serving or who have been honorably discharged.

ALERT - NEW MEETING LOCATION

Please note that, due to the closing of the Danville Veterans Hall for renovation, beginning in May our general monthly meetings will now be held at Hap Magee Park. The address is: Hap Magee Ranch Park, 1025 La Gonda Way, Danville, CA 94526. The meeting will be in the Swain House.

Upcoming Events

July 23rd - Operation Welcome Home Seminar - Our sister chapter in Pacifica is hosting an information event for active duty military, veterans and their families to attend. This event will discuss benefits, jobs and PTSD and there will be a panel at the end for questions. Speakers include Francis Hall from Operation Welcome Home; and EDD representative and Keith Armstrong from the San Francisco VA Hospital. This event starts at 7:00 p.m. sharp and will be held at the American Legion Hall, 555 Buel Avenue, Pacifica, CA. Please respond to Debbie Smyser at pacificamilitarymoms@yahoo.com if you will be attending.

July 29th - Hot Summer Nights, Danville, CA - the Blue Star Moms will have a booth at Church and Prospect in Danville to collect post cards and donations for our upcoming Holiday Care Package mailing. Please stop by and say hi and send a post card to our troops overseas!

August 5-8 - East Bay Stand Down. Stand Down is a term used during war to describe the practice of removing combat troops from the field and taking care of their basic needs in a safe area. East Bay Stand Down takes homeless vets off the streets for a few days and provides shelter, food, legal assistance, physical and dental help and offers information on jobs and housing. Many volunteers are needed and donations are welcome.

How can you help the Veterans at East Bay Stand Down? Donations of money or clothing would be greatly appreciated. The clothing items needed are: colored tee shirts (no logos), white athletic (sport socks), and white underwear (briefs). Sizes needed for tee shirts and briefs are from small to 3X, with large and extra large being the greatest need. For more information on Stand Down and how you can help please visit: East Bay Stand Down Thank you for your support!

August 10-15 - Blue Star Moms National Convention in Grand Junction Colorado

September 19-27 - California Tour - The California Tour is a 600+ mile cycling event that starts at the Marine's Memorial Hotel in San Francisco and finishes at Del Mar Beach, Camp Pendleton, California. Riders are volunteers from the U.S. Marine Corps, the Marine Corps League and the local community. Proceeds from this event support the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund and the Sentinels of Freedom Scholarship Foundation. Twenty cyclists and fifteen volunteers will participate in the journey. If you wish to sponsor a rider, make a contribution, volunteer to ride or support, please visit their website at The California Tour

Recent Activities

Care Packages: On June 19th we were able to mail out 651 large flat rate priority boxes to troops deployed from our area. We have many people and groups to thank.

Blue Star Moms has enjoyed the support of Molly's Pup-Puree at 425 Danville Blvd., in Danville and Walmart at 4501 Rosewood Drive in Pleasanton. They have provided us with space for donation collections we refer to as "Drop Zones". We are grateful to Camp Parks for their support with the use of their facility for packing our 4th of July Care Packages.

Many groups have given time and donations. National Charity League, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts are just a few. The Boy Scout Eagle projects and high school seniors have let Blue Star Moms Care Package donations be part of their community and leadership projects.

An additional thank you goes to all of the many people who have donated at the sites. Donations of items for the Care Packages and cash for mailing have been given. Your support of our sons and daughters and to all of our troops is greatly appreciated

The Danville 4th of July Parade, sponsored by the Kiwanis of the San Ramon Valley, picked as its theme for this year "Honoring Our Heroes". Our moms and dads and family members walked in the parade carrying pictures of our kids with the words "My Hero" attached. We were honored to have walking with us two of our moms sons, Keith Hughes, USMC and Lance Otzmann, US Army. Lance's mom didn't have a picture to carry but she did have the REAL thing there, so she made a big arrow that pointed to him saying "He's my Hero"! We all got a kick out of that! We decorated Tami and Dave Jenkins' truck with banners that said "America's Heroes" with all the military values below such as "Duty, Honor, Courage" and a sign that said "Defending our Freedom" with all of the military seals below. The community showed so much support for our kids serving by standing and clapping and cheering as we passed by. We could not have ordered a more special morale booster! We were honored to have with us Dianne Layfield, Gold Star mother of LCpl. Travis Layfield who paid the ultimate sacrifice on April 6, 2004 in Iraq. On Thursday, July 8th we were honored to attend the Kiwanis awards luncheon at Round Hill Country Club in Alamo where we were presented with the "Theme of the Parade" award! We would like to thank the Kiwanis of the SRV and the Town of Danville for another amazing 4th of July Parade!

Care Packages:

We depend on your support and help to continue our mailings. Learn more

We collect donations all year long for our care package mailings. We are also available to speak to community groups and school events about our programs to support the military here at home as well as the deployed troops. For more information please click on our contact us link above and let us know how we can help. We look forward to another year of working and partnering with our local communities to continue to support our troops.

ATTENTION TROOPS: It is essential that you put your ending deployment date in your email request if you want a care package. To request a care package if you are a deployed service person, email us at - requestacarepkg@bluestarmoms.org

Gold Star Family License Plate Bill

On September 26, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 1455-the Gold Star Family License Plate bill-authored by Senator Dave Cogdill (Modesto). This bill authorizes the California Department of Veterans Affairs to sponsor a Gold Star Family specialized license plate program and waives the 7,500 minimum applications requirement. This bill authorizes a family member of a member of the Armed Forces who was killed while serving on active duty in the military to apply for a special license plate with a design containing a Gold Star and the words "Gold Star Family."

Project: Gold Star

The Gold Star Family License Plates will be produced at no cost to the state's General Fund, so fundraising will be necessary. The Department of Veterans Affairs is authorized to actively seek donations to pay for the costs of producing the plates (estimated to be $300,000). The Department of Veterans Affairs has established Project Gold Star to help raise the necessary funds. All of the money collected by Project Gold Star will be deposited into the Gold Star Family License Plate Account created by SB 1455. Upon appropriation by the Legislature, these funds will be transferred to the Department of Motor Vehicles to cover their costs.

Project Gold Star began accepting donations upon the signing of the Bill. Anyone interested in participating may download, fill out and fax their pledge to the VetFund.

Checks made payable to Project Gold Star can be mailed to Project Gold Star, 1227 O St, Room 314, Sacramento, CA, 95814. For more information contact Roz Jaurequi, at 916-503-8095 or http://www.cdva.ca.gov/VetFund/GoldStar.aspx

General meetings are on the second Wednesday of every month at:

Hap Magee Ranch Park Swain House
1025 La Gonda Way
Danville, CA 94526
7:00 - 9:00 pm
get directions | map

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