Kay Hagan meeting with residents in Raeford Friday

North Carolinians will get a chance to chat up Sen. Kay Hagan this Friday in Raeford, NC, a popular area for Bragg-based military families. Hagan will be at this addressL L.E. McLaughlin, Jr. Building, 423 East Central Avenue, Raeford, NC 28376 from 2:30 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. to hear constituents concerns on issues such as federal agencies, such as the VA, IRS or the Social Security Administration. Her staff will be around for awhile afterward to hear and help with constituents' concerns.

 

Gabby Giffords, MSOY?

The Fayetteville Observer has a great story in the paper today about me and the two other Bragg wives who've been nominated for Military Spouse of the Year. Here's a link to the story:

You can vote for me here until February 3rd, when voting on this first round (the Branch representative round) ends. AND PLEASE DO VOTE FOR ME! But, if you've got a minute, read the profiles of the other spouses (because there's a husband who has been nominated, too --- Love that!). Reading what some of them have accomplished and committed themselves to doing, despite all sorts of obstacles, has literally moved me to tears. I am truly very honored and humbled to be in their ranks. It's hard to think of this as a competition when I find myself voting for my "competitors"...

It's no secret that I'm partial to military families. Over and again we do the impossible, and usually with a smile on our face. This was even more apparent yesterday when Gabrielle Giffords, the only military spouse in Congress, announced she was resigning this week. As you no doubt recall, she's been recovering from a gunshot to the head after an assassin tried to kill her last year. In this video she says that she still has a lot of recovering left to do and that stepping down is the right thing for her constituents.

Maybe we need her as a write-in candidate for Military Spouse of the Year? Seriously... what an amazing woman!

 

 

DREAM Scholarships for Military Kids

As if we needed more reasons to love Autumn Letendre ... The golden-voiced, Gold Star Marine widow started The Golden Star USA Foundation to  "provide pre-through post-deployment/war support, literature, lectures, financing, and education to our active duty and honorably discharged military service members and their dependents."

Autumn's husband, Marine Capt. Brian Letendre was killed in Iraq in 2006. Since then Autumn has, quite literally, been a voice for patriotism, the military community and for other surviving spouses by singing her beautifully written songs in venues across the country and advocating for military families through her Foundation.

As part of that mission, her Foundation is giving away $2,000 college scholarships to military kids. Autumn wrote me this week to ask if I would help spread the word that the deadline for scholarship applications is fast approaching and they want as many military kids as possible to know that there's college money out there for the taking.

I wrote back and told her to ask me to do something unpleasant next time. I am only too happy to share this news with as many military families as possible.

Called The Dream Scholarship (Develop. Reach, Educate. Achieve. Motivate.) the goal of the scholarship is to "recognize the contributions and sacrifices military children make on a daily basis through deployments and supporting their military sponsor who volunteered to protect our freedoms." The deadline for applications is March 2, 2012.

To apply for the scholarship, applicants should be:

* Dependent, unmarried children of active duty or honorably discharged military personnel under the age of 21

* Applicants must be enrolled, or planning to enroll, full-time at an accredited U.S. college or university in the fall of 2012.

* Applicant must have a minimum of a 3.0 grade point average.

The scholarships are awarded without regard to race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, religious belief, national origin, rank or service of sponsor.

 

PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION
This program is independently administered by The Golden Star USA Foundation, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization. The GSUSA Foundation board is solely responsible for the selection of scholarship recipients and its decisions are final. Please direct any questions or concerns to info@thegoldenstarusa.com or 1-(888)-317-8423 Extension 0.

- Dream Scholarship Form

 

Military Spouse of the Year

 

So ... I have been nominated to be the 2012 Military Spouse of the Year and made it all the way to the finals! Right now I'm up against four other Army wives, all of whom are really impressive. One of us will be chosen and then the overall Military Spouse of the Year will be chosen out of that group. At this point it all comes down to votes -- whoever gets the most votes wins. The good news is that anyone can vote -- and you can vote EVERY 59 minutes!  So please vote for me and tell your friends to vote for me, too. And if I win I promise to buy each and every one of you a rainbow-striped pony.

Click here to vote:
http://msoy.milspouse.com/ViewProfile.aspx?id=160

(And, just in case you're wondering, I have no idea *what* I will actually win. Probably just some validation and the opportunity to meet with military and political leaders and to inflict my opinions on them. But how often does one of us get to do that?)