The Goose Mans the Booth

Every weekend, indeed everyday, brings new opportunities to build awareness of the old Blue Star Banner tradition. Mother Goose and, of course, Mr. Goose have been spotted in several locations lately — making those connections to military families and explaining the benefits of having a banner hanging in their front windows.

Mark is completely in charge of setting up our booth and blowing up the balloons. Thank you, dear!

In fact, just this past weekend, we braved the drizzle and dropping temperatures in lovely, convenient Oak Park to occupy a booth at the 40th Annual Day in Our Village celebration. Thousands of local residents visited Scoville Park and were treated to tasty concessions, an excellent variety of live music, pony rides, face painting, hair dyeing, balloons, candy, a lot of brochures, information overload AND the opportunity to sign Thank You cards to send to the troops.

Love that kid in the front…

Yes, that’s dear Mother Goose manning the Blue Star Family Platoon booth!

You may notice that she is wearing large dark sunglasses even though the day is obviously overcast. Nobody even knew that behind those glamorous Hollywood shades, Mother Goose was hiding two hideous eye infections…

We had thousands of visitors to our booth and so many folks signed the Thank You cards. People care very much about our brave servicemen and women — often Americans really want to do something concrete to show their support, but are simply unaware or unsure of ways they can make a difference in the day of a soldier or sailor.

Hundreds of Americans signed cards to send to the troops!

Mother Goose is always glad to provide those ways and opportunities.

A very special shout out to a friend of Mother Goose who showed up at the booth with a container of freshly baked bars to bolster the energy level of this goose. Regina is the mom to a very special Marine — a Purple Heart recipient who will be retiring from the Marine Corps this autumn. In fact, Regina and I met BECAUSE she had a Blue Star Banner in her front window!

Regina saved my life with her home-baked, still warm from the oven gooey bars.

THAT’s exactly why I do this for a living! Well, actually, I don’t get paid…yet.

I am working towards making that dream come true.

Doesn’t it seem like this would be the perfect career for this goose?

In the weeks to come you will be called on to support a very special project of mine. I will share details as the days draw nearer, but let me just say right now that Mother Goose is going way out on a limb with a military family support project that will dazzle you and bring a tear to your eye…

Enough said.

A Younger Goose Plays Soccer

The youngest daughter of Mother Goose is nine years old. She’s a quiet young lady in school, some would say she is an introvert — others might say she’s shy. But her soccer coach has something so positive to say about her, “AnnaRose, you’re calm.” Oh I love that! The heart of Mother Goose warms up like chicken noodle soup to hear such a nice description of her little gosling.

Her team is called the Andersen Park Sharks; they play against the Fox Park Gators every Saturday morning. Here are some pictures from last Saturday’s game:

There's AnnaRose on the right; Solana is on the left.

That's Cameron with the amazing KICK!

Lyova is minding the goal for us.

Just look at the action!

Mother Goose loves to watch kids playing soccer! There’s just non-stop action — they run to the left, they run to the right. They kick and kick again. They get in a bunch, and then somebody kicks the ball, and away they all go chasing it. It’s very exciting for a goose!

But what I’m most happy about are these things:

1. AnnaRose chose to play this sport.
2. She really likes to play soccer, especially defense.
3. Her friend, Solana, signed up to play just because AnnaRose was signed up even though she’s involved in lots of other activities.
4. Mother Goose is making some really nice friends with the other parents.

I think this might be one of the best things that has ever happened in the universe!

Blessings on you and your family and your day from Mother Goose who really REALLY likes soccer.