Forest Ridge resident, Nancy Moran, bought a home in the Deer Creek III neighborhood shortly before the Covid 19 pandemic reached Oklahoma. A retired former Deputy Chief Counsel for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Ms. Moran, returned to Oklahoma when her son and daughter-in-law both accepted positions in Tulsa and asked her to relocate back to the Tulsa area, where she had lived in the 1980’s.

While house hunting, Forest Ridge’s lakes, tree-lined trees, walking paths, and community spirit reminded her of her previous home in Indiana, so she submitted an offer, and six weeks later she unpacked a household of moving boxes.  

Raised by a mom who had been a Red Cross social worker and a father who was actively involved in multiple community projects, volunteer work was just a way of life.  A former Grant Chairperson for the Assistance League of Indianapolis, an officer in Altrusa, and one of the original founders of Habitat for Humanity in Shawnee, Oklahoma, she was anxious to “get back in the saddle,” after the recent Covid 19 pandemic, a reverse shoulder arthroplasty, and eight months of physical therapy.  

She believes volunteering puts everything into perspective and finds it very gratifying to focus on something other than oneself or family. She’s learned over the years that volunteer work only needs two things: passion and a can-do attitude.

With her 25-year VA history she thought one of the Broken Arrow Veteran Center organizations on S. Elm might be a perfect fit, so she visited the Center last Spring and discovered the Broken Arrow Blue Star Mothers.  She was immediately impressed with their contagious enthusiasm and shortly thereafter became an associate member.

 

The national organization was founded in 1942 in Flint, Michigan, when Captain George H. Maines asked mothers of active-duty WW II soldiers to respond to a newspaper ad asking for care packages for soldiers overseas.  The organization was granted a congressional charter in June 1960, and the local Broken Arrow Chapter was established in 2003.   It is one of the busiest chapters in the State of Oklahoma.   Over the years its service area has expanded, and it now also serves the Bixby, Coweta, Owasso, and Wagoner areas, as well as the State of Oklahoma’s Claremore Vet Center.

 

 The local chapter was founded on the principles of service to active duty, national guard, and reserve personnel; support of honorably discharged veterans; offering a network for mothers of sons and daughters who are currently on active-duty status, or have served; assisting other veteran service organizations on a multitude of various projects; and last, but certainly not least, promoting patriotism.  It now reaches out to approximately 5,000 individuals a year, including 500 BAPD, BAFD, and Coweta first responders each Christmas season.

 

A core initiative of the chapter, BABSM sends Freedom Box care packages overseas each month. They anticipate sending 2,650 boxes this new fiscal year.  Requests for boxes are made by commanding officers, chaplains, family members, neighbors, and other soldiers. Each box contains approximately 47 items and notes and drawings written by local school aged children and BABSM members.  The items range from clean white socks to personal hygiene items to two of the very favorite…beef jerky sticks and Girl Scout cookies!!!  Boxes have been sent to deployment sites in Afghanistan, Africa, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, an aircraft carrier, and two submarines.

 

A USPS van comes each month and members, volunteers, and children who have decorated the boxes and written notes form a “conga line” and pass the boxes to the postal employees who stack them up in the delivery van. Over the years they have learned “many hands make light work.”

 

The chapter often receives thank you notes that come from the heart.   One Radar Squad Chief recently wrote “We’d like to express our deepest gratitude for your support, love, and kindness.   The care packages you’ve sent have all been received with grateful hearts. Something as simple as girl scout cookies can provide such a nice nostalgic reminder of home and everything we joined the military to protect….the fact is you never truly know what kind of impact even the smallest acts of kindness have…a pebble tossed into a pond makes ripples that reach far beyond the size of the pebble that caused them…a happy memory may drive them to “pay it forward.”   

 

Another soldier recently wrote “Knowing that there are people back home that are thinking and caring about us helps the Marines find meaning in what we do and helps ease the pain that many of us feel being so far away from home.”   A third Broken Arrow veteran, who was honorably discharged after serious injuries to his pelvis and back, said when he opened his care box, while still overseas, it was like being home for a few minutes. And, lastly, a soldier who served on a joint base with soldiers from the UK explained they shared their boxes when they learned the UK soldiers never got similar items from back home. He explained it immediately established a friendly, neighborly relationship that simply hadn’t existed before the exchange.

 

The chapter does not restrict their activities to just monthly care packages.  Every December they help lay up to 600 wreaths in local cemeteries, fulfill Christmas wish lists from Claremore Vet Center and remember veterans in local nursing homes and assisted living centers.  They also distribute up to 2,000 filled Christmas stockings handmade by ladies who attend Ridge Christian Church to active-duty personnel, local veterans, and local first responders. Another Forest Ridge resident and friend of Mrs. Moran, Ronda James belongs to Forest Ridge Baptist Church, and the church has chosen BABSM as the recipient of their November Blessing Box project.   A former Forest Ridge resident and Mayor of Broken Arrow, Debra Wimpee, is also a member of the Broken Arrow Blue Star Mothers and is currently working with the President on a new unnamed project for next Spring.

 

Throughout the year they sponsor several other activities like their annual Poker Run, the “We remember 9/11” golf tournament, and a Bunco-Rama evening, all to raise funds to support the chapter’s endeavors.  They also help support other VSOs like the American Legion, Broken Warrior Ranch, Eagle Ops, Heroes Hope, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Soldiers Wish, Tulsa Warrior Hockey Club, VVA, and the VFW.

 

Clearly, Broken Arrow Blue Star Mothers are a dedicated group of women, highly effective at what they do, and dedicated to serving our active duty and veteran personnel.  

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