Connie Milstein

Posts Tagged ‘Blue Star Families’

On February 24^th and 25^th, many Hollywood favorites came out to show their support for Blue Star Families, where Connie Milstein is on the Board of Directors.  The Creative Coalition joined with Blue Star Families to create a PSA to help raise awareness about suicide among military service members and their families.

Directed by Tim Daly, the co-President of The Creative Coalition, the PSA was scheduled to include Cher, Dana Delany, Hector Elizondo, Minnie Driver, Omar Epps, Richard Schiff and many others. Stars such as Susan Sarandon, Melissa Leo, Stanley Tucci, Ellen Barkin and many others have already lent their talent towards these efforts as well.

The PSA is scheduled to debut at the White House Correspondents Dinner weekend in Washington, D.C.

Blue Star Families – of which Connie Milstein is on the Board of Directors – is all about helping and supporting military families.  Just last week, there was yet another story of how Reyna Reyna (chapter director of Southern California’s BSF) saw this in practice.  When she asked localities to help her send care packages to deployed Marines in Afghanistan, the response was overwhelming; no one sat back silently.  Indeed, it was a group of grandmothers who organized an assembly in Saint Catherine’s Church, Temecula, to get out their mixing bowls and flour and start baking!  At the end of the project, there were over 200 dozen freshly baked cookies ready for the marines in Afghanistan.
“This is exactly what Blue Star Families is all about,” said Reyna. Indeed, Connie Milstein and the BSF work hard to literally get “hands-on” to support the military and their families.

In an unprecedented move, Blue Star Families – the organization that supports military families – is seeking to assemble a Blue Star Family Cookbook.  The goal of the project is to “celebrate” the lives of military families while easing the soldiers’ “transitions away from home.”  Included in the book will be recipes as well as articles addressing specific entertaining and cooking needs while trying to “support [the soldiers] while they’re making sacrifices and adjusting” to military life.
Connie Milstein is a member of the Board of Directors of Blue Star Families.

Blue Star Families is an association working to support military families throughout the United States. Connie Milstein serves as their president. The members of the organization include military parents, spouses, children and families of all outlets of service.

Last year, Blue Star Families started a program called Books on Bases, Smiles on Faces. Over 10,000 books have been distributed to military base libraries, DOD Schools and military impacted public schools. Children with parents serving in all branches of the military were supported by these book donations. The program was launched in partnership with the Kids in Distressed Situations organization.

This past summer, over 850 museums throughout the United States opened their doors to military personnel and their families, thanks to the initiative of Blue Star Families, with board member Connie Milstein, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Following the success of this operation, Blue Star Families launched an art contest for army children. Running from July 1^st through September 12^th, the contest was meant for children with a parent or sibling (including step parents/siblings) who served in active duty, either on reserves or in the National Guard. The contest enabled the children to express themselves and their feelings, give thanks to the supportive museums, and also win prizes.

The children painted, colored or sent photos of their experiences or thoughts during a visit to a Blue Star Museum. Every picture was sent with a short explanation and was required to depict the blue star in some way. The winning artists, who received savings bonds, were chosen by a panel of judges from Blue Star Families, and announced on October 8^th.

In a lovely show of appreciation for American military families, Blue Star Families and the National Endowments for the Arts teamed together this summer.  They invited military families, including active duty service members and their immediate families, to come to 600 museums for free.  The free admission ran from Memorial Day (May 31, 2010) through Labor Day (September 6, 2010).

Certainly, many advocates of military service, like Connie Milstein, support these efforts to offer benefits to military families.

Laura Dempsey is one of the founders of Blue Star Families, an organization which recently added Connie Milstein to their Board of Directors. Ms. Dempsey founded BSF in order to fill in what she saw as a large gap in the knowledge Americans had about military families. Ms. Dempsey felt that because little was really known about the everyday lives of military families, it was hard for the public to understand the successes and challenges of these families. She believed that by bringing awareness to the public, civilians could connect more readily with the military families, help support them, and generally share in the service to our nation that the military families bear, for the most part, on their own.

Laura Dempsey is the wife of Major Jason Dempsey, who is currently deployed to Afghanistan. The Dempsey family is stationed at Fort Drum, in New York, but in their eleven years of marriage of already moved seven separate times, to five different U.S. states. Laura is a civil rights lawyer and, for the past ten years, has worked for the rights of children and families, including helping to draft federal legislation to protect families and the children within them.

Blue Star Families is an organization which was founded by military families in order to support, connect and empower military families. The influence of BSF is widespread, with a presence in over 70 military bases throughout the world. BSF is proud to have a dynamic National Leadership Team which is comprised of the spouses and other family members of the active duty, military personnel, including national guardsmen, reservists and veterans who are serving in all of the branches of the U.S. military.

Connie Milstein recently became a member of the board of directors of BSF- a natural extension of Mrs. Milstein’s long-term commitment to and concern for military families. Connie Milstein’s support has extended to donating, on more than one occasion, special confections from her baked goods shop, Connie’s Bakery, adding a sweet touch to the special programing BSF organized on behalf of their families. Whether it is brownies, cookies or cakes, treats from Connie Milstein’s bakery says, “We love you and support you!” in the sweetest way possible.

Connie’s Bakery donated 400 tins of brownies to the soldiers of Fort Drum who returned home for a Christmas family reunion and redeployment. However, not all the tins were immediately distributed due to the delay of several flights to a time past the freshness date on the brownies. In order not to let any of the brownies go to waste, it was decided that it would be a nice idea to distribute the remaining brownies at chapel to the families attending the Christmas vigil services on post. After Mass the priest allowed Laura Dempsey (BSF co-founder and Vice Chairman of Army Spouse Support at Fort Drum) got up and told the congregants about Blue Star Families, and Connie’s Bakery.

“When I got to the part about how Connie’s wanted to thank the 10th Mountain families for their service and sought us out to distribute 400 tins of brownies for them, the audience actually gasped. We were swarmed after the service – everybody wanted to know about BSF and how we got the brownies. People were genuinely touched and impressed. It was a really special experience.”

A heart-warming homecoming event near Christmas for soldiers at Fort Drum was made even sweeter by a donation of 400 tins of brownies from Connie’s Bakery. Connie Milstein, founder of Connie’s Bakery, in coordination with Blue Star Families, made sure that in addition to the smiling faces, hugs, kisses and signs reading, “Welcome Home” and “We Missed You” from the loving families, that there was a big thank you from Connie as a representative of the rest of the country to show their love and appreciation for the sacrifice of the soldiers and their families.

When the tins of brownies were first opened, there was a fear that perhaps not all of them would be distributed due to the fact that many of the people they were offered to politely declined. That all changed, however, when one brave soldier finally took a brownie saying, “Sure I’ll try one.” With his remark that, “Those are GOOD brownies” the atmosphere changed now that the brownies has this soldiers enthusiastic seal of approval.  After that there were no more polite refusals of brownies, and they went like hotcakes.

Upon hearing the origin of the brownies, the families expressed warm gratitude to Connie Milstein, Connie’s Bakery and Blue Star Families. It was a sweet welcome home with a sweet thank you gift from Connie’s Bakery.