Blue Star mom from MH helping after son injured in Iraq
Barbara Serrano stood watching for her son as the stretchers carrying injured Marines came off the bus at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego. She didn’t find him.
Fortunately, the severe arm injury he received during the November attack on Fallujah allowed him to be wheeled off first, not carried off. U.S. Marine LCpl. Shawn Gooch was already inside.
“If I had seen him go by I would not have seen these other guys,” Serrano said. “It was a heart-stopping scene. There were shattered bodies and nobody was there from their families. I was the only one.”
Travel, hotel and restaurant costs are more than many military families can sustain; Serrano said she was lucky to be able to go.
Because of this experience, Serrano decided to do something to help wounded military personnel and their families. Besides buying $600 in personal supplies for the other Marines – which she intends to continue – she found just the thing in San Diego. The Fisher House, located on the hospital grounds, provides a way for families to stay near their injured serviceman or woman at a cost of $10 a day, far less than they would pay at a hotel.
The program started in 1990, with 32 Fisher Houses currently on the grounds of 17 military installations across the country plus six at veterans’ hospitals. Besides the house in San Diego, California has only one other, at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. Each year more than 8,500 families use a Fisher House somewhere in the United States or at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
Fisher is a community house with 18 bedrooms, 18 bathrooms and shared kitchen and living, dining and laundry rooms. Basic canned goods are provided though residents can also shop for themselves. Serrano wants to see one built at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital where, she says, the need is great.
“A Fisher House is desperately needed up there,” Serrano said. “Palo Alto is expensive.”
The Palo Alto VA Hospital specializes in rehabilitating spinal and head injuries, not an unusual occurrence in this or any war.
Serrano, who has lived in Morgan Hill since 1999, carried her campaign to Morgan Hill Rotary recently and met with great success.
“It was the first time I had ever spoken in public,” she said.
Serrano said she just had to do something after seeing the injured in San Diego.
“I saw horrible things,” she said.
The Rotarians anted up $1,500 just over lunch, from a four-minute talk. On a roll now, Serrano hopes the rest of the community at large will want to send money for the building fund.
Since she is a founding member of the “South Bay Blue Star Moms,” a nonprofit 501(c)3 that includes Sunnyvale to Gilroy, any donations can go through that group and are tax deductible. Contributions can also be sent through the Fisher House website.
Blue Star Moms are mothers of military service members (dads can help out too), formed to provide support for their troops and for each other as they endure the uncertainty that comes with having a child in harm’s way.
Serrano will continue working for troops in Iraq and in hospitals.
“They need support every day,” she said. “Our goal is to support our troops through donations and care packages and through volunteering.”
Because mail can no longer be sent to “Any troop in Iraq” – security concerns – all packages either must be addressed to a real person or must go through an official source such as Defend America (www.defendamerica.mil)
“There are still a lot of guys who don’t get anything,” Serrano said.
Blue Star Moms work with these organizations, collect supplies, package them and pay for the postage. The South Bay Blue Star group collected more than $16,000 this year for postage. Serrano suggests shampoo, razors, socks, underwear, snacks and paperback books – and letters or cards.
And Serrano will collect similar supplies for military personnel in the Palo Alto Veterans’ Hospital.
“The injured are often forgotten,” she said.
Even though her job as a dispatcher with Yellow Cab of San Jose and two other children keep her busy, Serrano says it’s not hard to make time to help the troops.
Blue Star Moms also support each other and others when the news is not good.
“I’ve been to two Marine funerals and how those Marines stand there, folding the flag, talking to the parents, I just don’t know,” Serrano said.
Her son, Shawn, 26, is recuperating from his injuries with his family at home in Minnesota.
• To donate to make Serrano’s idea of a Fisher House in Palo Alto come true, send tax-deductible donations to Blue Star Moms, Fisher House Fund, P.O. Box 60907, Sunnyvale, CA 94086-9991. Details on the Fisher House program: www.fisherhouse.org/
• Details on supporting the troops: www.southbaybluestarmoms.org/ Drop off supplies at BookSmart, 17415 Monterey Road, or e-mail Serrano at [email protected]/
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or phoning (408) 779-4106 Ext. 201.
Supplies for
troops in Iraq
For troops in hospitals and in Iraq
• Plastic sealing/Ziploc bags, all sizes. (For sandstorm protection) and
to mix powdered drinks
• Eye drops, nosedrops, toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, foot powders, anti-fog drops for goggles, eye glass cleaners.
• Mending kits: tan, brown
and green thread
• Throat drops and vitamin C drops.
• Q-Tips and cotton balls, hand sanitizers, Lever 2000 Body Wipes are most requested.
• Bug sprays–20 percent Deet
is popular. Sun screen, lip balm, unscented lotions and creams
for dry skin.
More inside on page A6
