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Date: 6/21/2023
WESTFIELD — As a military spouse, Ward 3 City Councilor Bridget Matthews-Kane said she has been looking for ways to better support military families in the Westfield community. She said the city does so much for veterans, but she saw a need for more support for their families.
Matthews-Kane said she hopes to bring Blue Star Families to the area, describing it as her “favorite military family organization.” A kickoff meeting is now planned for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 28, at Starbucks at 9 Southampton Rd., Westfield.
Blue Star Families was founded by military spouses in 2009 to empower these families to “ensure that wherever American military families go, they can always feel connected, supported, and empowered to thrive — in every community, across the nation, and around the globe.”
The New England chapter of Blue Star Families is relatively new. Matthews-Kane reached out to Jeffrey Chin, executive director of the newly formed Blue Star Families of New England Chapter and to Starbucks, which runs a national program in association with Blue Star Families, providing a space for gathering, food and drink.
“I started the ball rolling, and reached out to Jeff and Carol O’Brien at Starbucks, which has a program already in place that we can plug in to Westfield,” Matthews-Kane said, adding that the “trick” was getting the Blue Star organization to come to Western Massachusetts. At one point organizers were only looking at 100 miles outside of Boston.
After speaking to them, both gave an enthusiastic “yes.” Matthews-Kane said O’Brien, the manager at both Starbucks in Westfield, grew up in the city and sees the value in the program.
“Our number one goal is to hear from people, especially military families, what they would like for supports,” Matthews-Kane said, adding that Blue Star Families has several programs to offer.
She said Westfield Veterans Agent Julie Barnes, who is supportive of the effort, has a widows’ group that already meets.
“We could do several activities based on what the response is at these early meetings,” Matthews-Kane said.
She said the first meeting is just for adults, though small children are welcome. Jeffrey Chin will speak, as will she, but they will mostly be listening to what people would like to see, what kind of group, what kind of peer-to-peer support would be most helpful for them.
“We are hoping to pull people from surrounding communities, such as the Marine units at Westover, or surrounding communities. They are more than welcome,” Matthews-Kane said. She said when her husband was stationed in Chicopee, she knew a lot of his colleagues lived in Westfield.
“You don’t need to live in the area you’re serving,” she said.
Talking more about her own experience, Matthews-Kane said her husband is a lieutenant colonel in the Marines who works in strategy and planning. Last year, he was stationed at the Pentagon and now has been deployed to Hawaii (unfortunately, she said, they would not fly her out). She said if the deployment is at a base far away, it’s harder for family members to find support.
“We have faced many deployments, mobilizations and extended time on orders. When Tim deployed to Iraq in 2004-2005 and the Horn of Africa in 2007, he was based out of a Marine unit located at Westover, so my family could tap into a local network of support,” she said. “However, he has often been affiliated with different Marine units and joint commands in other parts of the country, and supports are harder to access. For example, when he was activated in 2015 out of a unit based in Norfolk, Virginia, there were few services we could utilize as the home base for his unit was so far away,” Matthews-Kane added, saying, “A local peer-to-peer network such as the one we are trying to build with the Blue Star Families program would have gone a long way to providing crucial support.”
“I’m thrilled Blue Star Families of New England is partnering with our local Starbucks to bring this program to Westfield and the surrounding community,” she said, adding that the first meeting will only be a start.
“For this first meeting, we’re hoping people just show up,” Matthews-Kane said. She said right now Newport, Rhode Island, has a very active Blue Star program running out of a Starbucks which was slow going at first, but now offers lots of activities.
“I’m assuming it might not go off to a huge start, but will grow over time when people hear about it,” Matthews-Kane said.
For more information on Blue Star Families, visit bluestarfam.org.