Strong Chick Military Mom Virginia May

It’s Military Monday at Happy First!

Meet one of our Strong Chick Military Moms-Virginia May.

Here is her story. She is awesome!

Strong Chick Virginia May

I have several family members that have served in various branches of the military:

John Caldwell- maternal grandfather, Army WWII
Claude Williams- father, Oklahoma Army National Guard
James May- husband, Air Force for 8 years. Serving in Germany four of those, where my stepson was born.
Marvin Beaver- step father in law, Army
James May Sr. – father in law, retired Navy
Wally May,-nephew, Navy currently stationed in San Diego

Although knowing that each of these men in my life served their country, it did not have the meaning to me as when my own son joined.

SPC Kendall Tallon E-4 graduated from Thunderbird Youth Academy in December 2010.  The following January, at age 17, I signed for him to join the Oklahoma Army National Guard. This past August he changed units and volunteered to deploy sooner than planned with the 120th Engineer Battalion and is now in Afghanistan for 9 months.

When my son went to basic combat training I searched the internet for support. I found the Broken Arrow blue star Mothers Chapter 5 located at 81st and Lynn Lane in Broken Arrow. I started volunteering in February 2011 when my son left. I was able to become an official member when my son graduated basic in April 2011.

I remember the first time that I volunteered and we were packing boxes for deployed soldiers. We packed items such as food, snacks, toilet paper, condiments like salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, etc. I was immediately humbled at how we take for granted the little things from home. I feel like I am closer to my son while he is away from home serving our country by volunteering weekly at Blue Star Mothers.

I am currently the 2nd Vice President of the Broken Arrow Chapter 5 in charge of fundraising. We support all branches of the military. This is a group of wonderful ladies who are so supportive. We come together for our children and each other. They are my rock and this experience would be much harder without all of them.

Right after my son deployed with his new group from Florida, we sent an additional 96 boxes to those troops. We didn’t have names for the individuals yet, so each box was addressed to my son.  I can only imagine that he felt like Santa giving out those boxes and the instant camaraderie that was made amongst some of those soldiers.

To send a box to a soldier it takes approximately $50. These funds come directly from the Blue Star Mothers and their fundraising efforts. The major fundraisers of this chapter are a BuncoRama, Golf Tournament and a Softball Tournament.

I am grateful for all of the military and their families for the sacrifices made.

p.s. (this is debbie) When you purchase a strong chick tee or cap, you can choose which charity you want our contribution to go to, and Blue Star Moms is one of the charities! Blue Star Moms is funded by the money from the fundraisers and donations from the community.