Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Gold Star Family Support Fund on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 232
Christine Benne discusses the new Gold Star Family monument being established at Victory Park on Fort Riley, honoring the 13,578 members of the First Infantry Division who made the ultimate sacrifice across multiple conflicts. This monument provides Gold Star families, those who have lost a loved one in military service, a place for reflection and remembrance.
• Gold Star Family Fund initially created to help Kansas families visit the First Infantry Division Memorial in Washington, DC
• Monument features the inscription "Their duty was to serve, Ours is to remember" with the Gold Star family seal
• Monument lists total casualties: 5,516 in WWI, 4,325 in WWII, 3,079 in Vietnam, 27 in Desert Storm, 439 in Iraq, and 192 in Afghanistan
• Unveiling ceremony scheduled for September 26th at 1:00 PM at Victory Park with Senator Marshall and General Rohn attending
• Memorial service at Kansas State Capitol in Topeka on September 25th at 10:00 AM, organized by the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs
• Support for Gold Star families available through Fort Riley's Survivor Outreach Support (SOS) program
To support the Gold Star Family Fund, visit the Armed Forces Community Foundation website at www.armedforcescf.org or contact GMCF directly through mcfks.org.
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on NewsRadio KMAN. Back with the GMCF Community Hour. My name is Dave Lewis. Christine Benny is the GMCF Director of Military Relations. Is that a new title? Is that changed? Military Relations Is that a new title? Is that changed?
Speaker 2:It's a new title. It's the same position, but a new title. Okay, and that means you do more. Oh, I always do a lot. Oh I know that, but you're doing more, I am doing more. So that puts me in line with Krista that was in here. So I'm one of the nine affiliates that are part of GMCF.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:That have executive directors. So of the 20 that we have, nine of us are executive directors. Good to know it's kind of neat. Good to know it's neat.
Speaker 1:Was the Patterson Family Foundation involved in the creation of?
Speaker 2:this Of the eight of them. So not my position, not yours, not my position, not yours, not my position, because it's not considered a rural thing.
Speaker 1:No, Well, actually.
Speaker 2:Armed Forces Community Foundation does receive that Patterson grant. But then since I'm also the director of Armed Forces Community Foundation and so or I'm sorry I'm director of military relations here at GMCF Gotcha, so it's kind of a dual role.
Speaker 1:So well, we have kind of a singular purpose for discussion today, right, and this is one that that really I think is extremely important. We do a lot of recognition about this in town, but probably not enough. You know, and I remember I was at um, in this just little background story, uh, uh, 4th of July concert, manhattan municipal band Um, they played, um, oh gosh, I can't remember what it was, but anyway they went into taps, but before, uh, you know, that was amazing grace going into taps which is a beautiful and uh in um, uh, one of the directors wasn't Frank, but but made the arrangement.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that they asked is that if there were any gold star families there, and there was uh one.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And dedicated it to them, and that's what we're going to be talking about today, because that is, you know, we talk about, you know, someone who's in the service that makes the ultimate sacrifice, but that ultimate sacrifice is deeper than just that one person's life, and that's why we have established gold star families, right, and we might just Talk a little bit about what a Gold Star family is.
Speaker 2:Well, a Gold Star family is essentially the family that has their family member, has given this ultimate sacrifice through their service families, those spouses, those sons, those daughters, those parents, with just keeping them, keeping their family members remembered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, keep that legacy alive.
Speaker 2:Keep that legacy alive, and so we were. So we started a fund a year ago a little about a year and a half ago, to help whenever the Society of the First Infantry Division was putting the names on the First Infantry Division Memorial in DC.
Speaker 2:There were 631 names that were put on that memorial in addition to the ones that are already there, and so the Gold Star Family Fund was established so we could help take those, take Gold Star families from Kansas to see their family members name on the memorial. So we were able to do that last year with the help of, actually, tyler Mason with Senator Marshall's office. Senator Marshall wanted to get that done, so we started working with him and then also with the McCormick Foundation who was able to help us fund that trip. So with that we had a little bit of extra money left over. With growing it here at GMCF we were able to raise enough money to get a Gold Star family monument put in at Victory Park at Fort Riley Really, and so we are wanting to have that memorial there for those Gold Star families.
Speaker 1:So all those 631, did you say, families will have once again kind of a more localized More localized yeah. Yeah, so, oh, that's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we'll have this beautiful monument, with Lynn Peterson out of Abilene is helping us.
Speaker 1:I've known Lynn for a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so he's helping us and so it's a very nice, just subtle. It'll be kind of in the back part, over by Lady Victory. If you're familiar with the park, it's up there by First Division headquarters and it's towards the back that Lady Victory's. Right there there will be a bench so you can sit and you can have some time over there bench so you can sit and you can, um, you know, just have some time over there, um, it's very simple, which is, you know, just a good way to to express how, just to have some time to sit and reflect.
Speaker 1:I was going to say it sounds more like of a, more like a reflection location.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, they have. I think they just poured the foundation up there and the monument will be placed. It will. I want to just read what it will have on there. So on the front of it it'll be their duty was to serve, Ours is to remember. So that would be the inscription on the front, with the Gold Star family seal, and then on the back it'll have all the 1st Infantry Division losses. So in World War I, there were 5,516. World War II, there was 4,325. Vietnam, there was 3,079. Desert Storm, there was 27. Operation Iraqi Freedom in New Don was 439. And Operation Enduring Freedom, there's 192.
Speaker 1:That's not quite 20,000.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of names that's a lot of names, and so this monument will be able to just allow those families to sit and reflect and have some time.
Speaker 1:How are those names going to be placed around that monument? They're not going to be. Oh, they're not. How are those names going to be placed around that?
Speaker 2:They're not going to be the names aren't going to be there, just those numbers will be there and so those, those the names, can be there on a with the society and the first infantry division monument in DC. Those names are, you can find those names there, but this is just a general uh reflection monument yeah, so I suppose there's some benches and some things.
Speaker 2:There's a bench there you can sit and there's a tree, a shade tree, there, so it'll be really nice. So this is also um for gold star families. There is on fort Riley there's an organization called Survivor Outreach Support and that's with Fort Riley I think that's the name of it SOS Okay, and you are wanting some services. You could reach out to Fort Riley Support Services and they will be able to, you know, help you get some benefits. There's some benefits that they can help you receive.
Speaker 1:How many Gold Star families are there in Kansas?
Speaker 2:I believe there's over 6,000, I believe, and of course, Fort Riley.
Speaker 1:you know those lives. Yes, those soldiers, they come from all over, not just the nation, but there have been others that have taken up residency and have served.
Speaker 2:So Gold Star families aren't just Army, they're Navy, they're Marines, they're Coast Guard, they're all of the services.
Speaker 1:Air Force, air Force, that's another one. Yeah, yes, air Force too, so that's another one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, air Force too. So it's all, it's everyone, and so this just gives an opportunity for the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division in Fort Riley to be memorialized in Victory Park. Yeah, so the other thing with this, we will be having an unveiling, and it'll be in the end of September. It'll be September 26th at 1 o'clock in Victory Park, and so you'll hear more about that coming out. If you look at the Armed Forces Community Foundation website, we'll have some information about it there. Look at the Armed Forces Community Foundation website, we'll have some information about it there. The day before, there will be a memorial service at Topeka, at the Capitol at 10 o'clock, and the KCVA Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs is doing that event.
Speaker 1:I bet you have quite a long list of invitees that will be a part of this.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. Well, so definitely at ours at Fort Riley. Senator Marshall will be there, of course, general Rohn will be there, and local city we've invited the governor, so maybe she'll be able to come with us, come out there and see our, our monument as well a lot of the dignitaries you know around the state and and and gold star families, too, gold star families too, you're gonna have quite a quite a crowd I hope so.
Speaker 2:it's a beautiful monument, it's really pretty. I've uh, tyler m and I, we drove out to Kansas City, oh about three weeks ago, and we were able to look at it. They haven't inscribed it yet, but we saw the monument, or the stone. It's pretty. It's about five foot a little over five feet tall, okay, so it's really pretty. So it's really pretty Now.
Speaker 1:You know we talked about you know you had some funds there, but there still is an opportunity for people to give to the Gold Star Family Support Fund and how can that be done?
Speaker 2:That can be done through the Armed Forces Community Foundation website. You can reach out to me here at GMCF and I'd be glad to connect you with on how to do that these funds are able to. We work with Fort Riley. There's some intricacies to do that, but we help support some of the activities that they do for the Gold Star families.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, mcfksorg, you can find your way, you can navigate around that to get to the fund as well. Congratulations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 1:Hopefully I can make it over there.
Speaker 2:This is a great this was a great project. It was very um, it was, uh, very touching to do this?
Speaker 1:Oh, I can imagine so, and, as um you know and are, are you considered gold star because that is someone that lost her life in combat?
Speaker 2:Okay, yes, yes, so, so, still, by losing my spouse. It was I. I can understand the grief to some degree, not not to the intensity, but yeah, it's it's. You know, anytime you lose a family member, as you know. So but, um, this, this hopefully gives these families a time to be able to have a place, to come to Fort Riley and reflect on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, beautiful, christine Benny, thank you for joining us, and don't go far.
Speaker 2:I'm not going far.
Speaker 1:Lori Rogge is going to be coming in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my other hat that I wear as the affiliate liaison for Rural Riley County Community Foundation.
Speaker 1:And we'll have Lori come in and joining us here in the next segment of the GMCF Community Hour. We do this every Monday morning at 10. You can always find out more about the work that the foundation is doing on our website, mcfksorg, and also follow us on social media Facebook and Instagram and I don't know what all Felix has got his hands in, but there's more.
Speaker 2:You can find us.
Speaker 1:We're easy to be found. Yes, no-transcript.