Fort Leonard Wood’s Survivor Outreach Services hosted a meeting and crafting event with Gold Star mothers June 7 at Army Community Service.
According to Jody Carmack, SOS support coordinator, the group started the day with Japanese kintsugi crafting, when a ceramic item — a bowl, for example — is broken and then repaired by mending the breakages with an adhesive mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum. The concept of the art form is the restored object is more attractive than it was originally, making it an especially appropriate craft for Gold Star mothers and other survivors.
“It symbolizes although something may be broken, it can be even more beautiful once it is mended with love,” Carmack said. “Their lives were shattered, much like the pottery, and over time, the moms have found ways to mend their broken hearts.”
Later in the day, the attendees — all members of a group called American Gold Star Mothers — crafted blankets as a service project. The blankets, along with stuffed toys the group purchased, were then donated to the Directorate of Emergency Services’ Law Enforcement Division for the Bears and Blankets program — police officers often carry items while responding to calls or policing housing areas that they can give to children in emotional need or to build positive community relationships, said Fort Leonard Wood Police Chief James Stewart.
“We have been doing this with the support of Survivor Outreach Services for about seven years now,” Stewart said. “This program is important to us, because it allows our officers to connect with a child that may have just been through a significant emotional event. Without the group’s support, we would not have these items to give to a child. We keep these items on hand in our patrol vehicles, so when an officer responds to an incident or just driving through the neighborhoods and sees a child that may benefit from the stuffed animal or blanket, they have them readily available.”
Jeanine Rainey lost her son, 1st Lt. Daniel Riordan — who everyone called “Lieutenant Dan” — in Iraq, in 2007. She called service projects, “a path toward healing.”
“I often think that my son completed his mission, and now I have mine,” Rainey said. “Rather than wallowing in grief, you’re doing something positive.”
And the project has the added benefit of helping comfort those in need. Martina Schutte lost her son, Pvt. Thomas Jones, in 2018. Schutte is also a psychiatric nurse practitioner, who explained that those who experience trauma have their brains “rewired.”
“And the sooner that you can quiet that hyperresponsiveness and trauma, then the better chances you have for healing,” Schutte said. “(Children) may not remember a lot of the trauma, but they’ll remember the feeling. So, often times, a blanket or a bear, that’s where children’s mindset is and where their developmental capacity is. When I became a Gold Star mother, I received a quilt from an organization — and it’s the same kind of process, where I still have my quilt; I look at it, and the feeling of when I heard that my son died comes back to me, along with the support I received.”
That support can be very inspiring, added Debbie Skouby, whose son, Marine Cpl. Nathan Maxwell, was killed in 2010.
“It’s a unique loss because, a lot of times, it’s a traumatic death,” Skouby said. “And so, people who have already been through that loss, and they’re moving forward — I’m not going to say moving on, because that doesn’t happen — but moving forward, and then, you get inspiration from that, to know that you can survive. You will survive this. And then, getting together and doing service just helps preserve the memory — you’re doing it in honor of your loved one.”
To donate to the Bears and Blankets program, or for more information on Survivor Outreach Services, visit the Fort Leonard Wood Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation website, or call 573.596.0212.
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2024 14:32 |
| Story ID: | 473889 |
| Location: | FORT LEONARD WOOD, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 28 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Gold Star mothers donate stuffed toys, blankets to Fort Leonard Wood police, by Brian Hill, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
