Military moms in Virginia bake sweet treats - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Military moms in Virginia bake sweet treats

RICHMOND, Va. — Open the door to Fisher House on any Wednesday morning and prepare to have your willpower brought to its knees.

The sweet aromas of chocolate, cinnamon and who-knows-what-else grab your senses and drag you down the hall, around the corner and straight into the spacious kitchen. There, you will find several moms making all sorts of cookies, cakes and cobblers.

“This house is a home away from home, so to have them come in and bake gives it that home atmosphere,” said Wayne Walker, manager of Fisher House at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “It’s really nice.”

These moms in the kitchen aren’t just any moms. They are Blue Star Mothers, Richmond-area moms whose children are in the military — some in harm’s way at this very moment — who dust themselves in flour, sugar and baking powder on Wednesdays as a way of doing something kind for the families staying at Fisher House.

Those families are there because their loved ones, wounded or ailing service members or veterans, are being treated at the medical center.

Mallie Murray, who directs the kitchen volunteers, calls it a “baking ministry.”

“Only for the grace of God it could be one of us, and who knows, it may be before all of these wars are over,” said Murray, whose son is a Marine. “So, we just do what we can. We give not only food, but we do a lot of comforting of people.

“We do more than brownies.”

Rebecca Hickman, another kitchen volunteer and president of Blue Star Families of Richmond, said: “We want them to know Richmond cares.”

Fisher House, a sprawling, 16,000-square-foot home with 21 guest rooms that opened last year on the McGuire property, provides free lodging for the families. Typically several dozen people, including children, live at Fisher House — from a few days to many months. They spend their days at the hospital with their loved ones, who might have lost limbs or suffered traumatic brain injuries or endured any number of other wounds.

Fisher House is part of a series of such homes around the country operated by a private foundation.

Blue Star Families provides support to the families of active-duty military personnel. The group is a way for families sharing a common bond — loved ones who are deployed, have been or will be — to lean on one another.

At Fisher House, the Blue Star moms started out making salads and soups, which seemed to be appreciated by the families. But the response was nothing like when they made cookies or cakes, and the families would congregate in the kitchen, taste samples and talk. That’s why the moms mostly make desserts now.

“It really gave us a chance to have that interaction with families,” said Hickman, whose son is an Army Ranger in Afghanistan. “Just a little bit of that friendliness from home.”

On a recent Wednesday, four Blue Star moms — Murray, Hickman, Linda Carr and Ruth Travis — were making coconut cake with a raspberry center, red velvet cake with chocolate frosting, banana bread with walnuts, frosted brownies, apple upside-down cake, oatmeal-raisin cookies with chocolate chips. You get the idea.

Family members drifted in and out of the kitchen on their way to the hospital, chatting with the Blue Star moms, checking out what smelled so good. And when they got back home, they had a counter full of goodies.

This year, more than 1,000 family members have stayed at Fisher House, making good use of a valuable resource, said Walker, who also is gratified the house receives significant community support beyond the Blue Star moms.

“It smells of nothing but success,” he said, “and cookies.”