Odell: “We in Putnam will always remember …”
TOWN OF KENT – It is a club no one wants to join yet there are 120 members in New York State alone. Gold Star Mothers is a group of moms who have lost their sons and daughters while they served in the armed forces.
Those women, who gave so much, were commemorated on Sunday at the annual Putnam County Gold Star Mothers’ Day event at the county’s Veterans Memorial Park in Kent. The county has been holding similar ceremonies at the site of its “national” Gold Star Mothers statue for the last 10 years.
This was the first time none of the county’s Gold Star Mothers were able to attend, but county Veterans Affairs Director Karl Rohde said they were there “in spirit.”
“No one wants to join this club; the dues are too high,” County Executive MaryEllen Odell told the three dozen who attended. “We in Putnam will always remember those who made the supreme sacrifice and the moms and families left to grieve.”
Odell described the Gold Star Mothers across the country as “cherished members of our community serving as a direct link for those who cannot be present with us today.”
Putnam County’s first Gold Star Mother, Hazel Martinez of Putnam Lake, died in July 2013. She lost a son in the Vietnam War and spent the rest of her life working with others to promote veterans’ causes around the region.
