Happy 10th Anniversary!
Founding moms of Moms On A Mission, Sandy Wakham and Barb Blackemore, along with fellow mom Pam Davis, prepare to send Girl Scout
Cookies to Marshall County soldiers.,
Moms are still on a mission
Fern Greenbank
Community Storyteller
It’s safe to say that mothers share a special
bond. One mother can feel another mother’s pain
and can understand her joy, too. But, mothers of soldiers feel a particular kind of fear that only another
soldier’s mother can feel.
Barb Blackmore and Sandy Wakham were
afraid in 2006 when their sons were deployed to Iraq
and Afghanistan. They found comfort in each other. That connection led to a simple act: reading the
names of deployed Marshall County soldiers at two
community events. Those readings got them a bit of
television coverage in Nashville.
They were on to something, these moms. They
were on a mission to make sure our soldiers were not
forgotten. Moms On A Mission became the literal
name for this duo. This month, the moms celebrate
the 10th anniversary of the group formation.
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“We knew we had to do something,” said Blackmore whose sun Clifford had been deployed to Iraq.
“It was so important to stay busy so we wouldn’t
think about the fear.”
Wakham said because soldiers were missing
everything, all the milestones in their families lives,
they wanted them to know we had their backs at
home.
Slowly over time, the moms became more organized and better understood what soldiers missed
the most. One of their most ambitious projects was
sending live Christmas trees to soldiers overseas.
The moms heard from their sons what soldiers
felt when they received the gifts of love from home,
especially the trees. The moms had their own personal market researchers in their sons.
“We didn’t send deodorant or tissues,” said