A mere three years ago, Blue Star Families was set up by a group of dedicated military spouses who sought to “raise awareness of the challenges of military family life with their civilian communities and leaders.”  Today, this is an important organization that has developed a whole support system for those who have family serving in the military.  The organization also seeks to involve the larger community, which was why the recent activity by the group of grandmothers baking special treats for those marines deployed in Afghanistan was so typical of their work.
BSF Southern California chapter director Reyna Reyna appealed to her community for help and had an incredible response from these grandmothers.  Indeed, Reyna commented that it’s a problem how many civilians want to get involved in helping their military brethren, but don’t know what to do. This was a perfect opportunity.  “Oh this is great, it’s my first time helping out,” said Dixie Branscome from the Lake Elsinore Elks Ladies Auxiliary. “I made 60 dozen cookies myself.”  Reyna was shocked and delighted that the women wanted to bake the cookies from scratch, donating real time to the cause.  “Military veteran Leo Vasquez, who served in the armed forces from 1977 to 1990, said he remembered how important care packages were to him. ‘I am here to give my support to those still serving,’ Vasquez said. ‘These packages meant a lot to me, they kept our morale up.’”
Connie Milstein is on the Board of Directors at BSF.

Ron Reagan, Connie Milstein and Tammy Duckworth

Co-hosts at the gracious Jefferson Hotel for an elegant book party in honor of the launching of “My Father at 100: A Memoir” were Connie Milstein, her husband JC de La Haye Saint Hilaire, Tammy Haddad, Ted Greenberg, and Jon Meacham.

At the end of an interview conducted by the Pulitzer-Prize winning Jon Meacham, Ron Reagan, the 40th president’s son and author of the memoir, asked Mr. Meacham to please read aloud about the closing moments of his father’s life; words he had written but which proved too emotional for him to read himself:

“His eyes found the face of the woman who for more than half a century had formed the core of his private world. ‘I love you honey, I love you’ was all she could say. Was all she needed to say,” Meacham read from the book while a mesmerized and emotionally moved audience listened on.