Blue Star Mothers Fredericksburg

Rob and Michelle took a trip to Virginia the very first time the Blue Star Mothers of Fredericksburg shipped with us. It just happened to be at the same time Captain O’Brien with the Minnesota National Guard was deployed to Afghanistan. Captain O’Brien is the service member to told us to do something with our shipping tools to make it easier for families to ship to their loved ones serving.

Teri was the Chapter President at the time. We were living streaming the community coming together to pack on Facebook and the Girl Scouts had just finished presenting the flags. Teri was talking to all the volunteers about how to pack the boxes. As Michelle was panning the crowd, Captain O’Brien joined the Facebook Live and was able to see what was happening at the event. It was really surreal. Michelle started to tear up. The ladies around us could see what was going on, and they got Terri’s attention. Michelle was choked up and couldn’t talk, so Rob told her Captain O’Brien was watching from Afghanistan. She got back on her microphone and announced to the volunteers that we had a special guest at the event via Facebook Live. When she told them he was a deployed service member, everyone stopped what they were doing, set their boxes down, and started clapping. It was definitely a moment we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. We filled and labeled over 600 packages and were done in a couple hours. Teri commented that they were used to packing all day and waiting at the post office for all the labels to be created. She didn’t know what she would do with the rest of her day. :)

There are so many incredible things that have come from doing care packages over the years from the people we’ve met to the impact for our troops. We are incredibly blessed to be able to do what we do and serve others.