Valor Is Partnering with Gold Star Mothers

The team at Valor has been working on this since September of 2020 and we are excited to officially announce our partnership with Gold Star Mothers.

American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. (AGSM), is a private nonprofit organization of American mothers who lost sons or daughters in service of the United States Armed Forces.

Valor will be working with them through our various programs such as Raise The Roof, Windows for Warriors, Flags for Veterans, and other programs soon to come.

For a history of Gold Star Mothers, continue reading (Information Cited From Wikipedia):

The Gold Star Mothers was founded by Grace Darling Seibold of Washington, D.C.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, George Vaughn Seibold, 23, volunteered, requesting assignment in aviation. He was sent to Canada where he learned to fly British planes since the United States had neither an air force nor planes. Deployed to England, he was assigned to the British Royal Flying Corps with 148th Aero Squadron. With his squadron, he left for combat duty in France. He corresponded with his family regularly. His mother, Grace Darling Seibold, began to do community service by visiting returning servicemen in the hospitals. re The mail from George stopped. Since all aviators were under British control and authority, the United States could not help the Seibold family with any information about their son.

Grace continued to visit hospitalized veterans in the Washington area, clinging to the hope that her son might have been injured and returned to the United States without any identification. While working through her sorrow, she helped ease the pain of the many servicemen who returned so war-damaged that they were incapable of ever reaching normalcy.

But on October 11, 1918, George’s wife in Chicago received a box marked “Effects of deceased Officer 1st Lt. George Vaughn Seibold”. The Seibolds also received a confirmation of George’s death on November 4 through a family member in Paris. George’s body was never identified.

Grace, convinced that self-contained grief is self-destructive, devoted her time and efforts not only to working in the hospital but also to supporting other mothers whose sons had lost their lives in military service. She organized a group consisting solely of these mothers, with the purpose of not only comforting each other, but giving loving care to hospitalized veterans confined in government hospitals far from home. The organization was named after the Gold Star that families hung in their windows in honor of the deceased veteran. After years of planning, twenty-five mothers met in Washington, D.C., on June 4, 1928, to establish the national organization, American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.

The AGSM is a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that sets its own rules for who is allowed to become a member. The current charter, held under Title 36 § 211 of the United States Code, was established on June 12, 1984

Today, membership in American Gold Star Mothers is open to any woman who was a U.S. citizen or legal resident of the U.S. or its Territories or Insular Possessions at the time their child (or adopted child) was inducted into military service and whose child (or adopted child) has died or has become missing in action while in the United States Armed Forces (or died later as the result of such service). Membership is not contingent on whether the child was killed in action or on the theater of operation or the time period of the service (which differs from distinctions made by the Department of Defense, which confers special status to service in particular periods of time and particular hostile operations).  Non-adoptive stepmothers are also eligible for membership if they assumed responsibility for the child before the age of fifteen and raised them. Husbands and children of Gold Star Mothers are eligible to join as Associate Members. Honorary membership is available to mothers who were not citizens or legal residents at the time their child was inducted. Associate Members and Honorary Members cannot vote or hold official positions (and are not required to pay dues).

AGSM is made up of local chapters, which are organized into departments. Five members are required to start a local chapter. If no local chapter is available, a woman may join the organization as a member at large.

Just as when it was founded, AGSM continues to concentrate on providing emotional support to its members, doing volunteer work with veterans in general and veterans’ hospitals in particular, and generally fostering a sense of patriotism and respect for members of the Armed Forces.

To learn more about Gold Star Mothers please visit their website at www.goldstarmoms.com