Blue Star Families Receives Be a STAR Grant

Blue Star Families, the country’s largest chapter-based support organization for military families, recently received the first-ever Be a STAR (Show Tolerance and Respect) grant for its MilKidz Club program. The MilKidz Club provides all military children, regardless of rank, branch of service, or military installation, with resources, mentoring and opportunities that will empower them to become leaders in their community.

Be a STAR is an anti-bullying initiative founding in 2011 with The Creative Coalition and WWE. The initiative’s goal is to use education and awareness to encourage young people to treat others with tolerance and respect. With the grant, Blue Star Families will incorporate Be a STAR’s lessons of Courage, Responsibility, Dignity, Friendship, Advocacy, Resiliency, Empathy, Identity and Morality into its monthly programs and after-school activities.

“Blue Star Families appreciates the support of The Creative Coalition and WWE, allowing us to help even more students learn how to Be a STAR,” said Sheri Robey-Lapan, Blue Star Families’ Senior Director of Programs. “Our military children show tremendous resilience each time they enter a new school… By incorporating Be a STAR lessons in our MilKidz Club and after-school activities, more military and non-military students will better understand what their fellow students are going through.” 

Connie Milstein and BSF Team Efforts

Blue Star Families – the organization that was set up to help the military by assisting their families – seeks to “connect the community of military families, both active duty and veterans, regardless of rank, and provide them with the support and empowerment they need to create the best personal and family life possible.” BSF Director Connie Milstein saw the need for this service, which really joins together the soldiers, their families and the community at large. The BSF posts blog spots for this aim, writing about topics that are of interest to everyone. Military families can receive advice and support on how to cope when their soldiers that are deployed and sorting out everyday life matters on their own during this time. Just recently, a chapter director of BSF from southern California, Reyna Reyna, commented on how their efforts were towards raising “awareness of BSF to military families who live off base….Often when families live in the civilian community they feel isolated, especially when their spouse deploys, she said. “They think they don’t have the same opportunities or benefits as if they lived on base.” There are so many ways that the community at large can get involved in helping the military and their families, and the BSF seeks to be a bridge between the two.