I love the Military Spouse of the Year contests. It gives us a chance to recognize our incredible fellow spouses and be inspired by their selfless work. I may blog and work really hard to empower spouses with information while attempting to hold leadership accountable – but I will never be the rock star most of these ladies are.
Bianca M. Strzalkowski, a Marine Corps spouse, was just named 2011 Military Spouse of the Year by Military Spouse magazine in recognition of her work for Marine Corps families.
From the Military.com story:
When her husband became a recruiter, Strzalkowski noticed that Marine recruiters at 69 stations in the state had no Family Readiness Groups, like other units throughout the services. The groups serve as a conduit for information on everything military families need to know, such as how to apply for educational assistance or what day care centers are accustomed to working with military children.Strzalkowski started a Family Readiness Group and leads workshops for spouses so they can help one another.
What a simple, yet potent idea! Bianca saw a problem and used her time and experience to reach into it.
There’s nothing stopping the rest of us from looking around and doing something like this. Congrats, Bianca, on your award and for being such an excellent example to us all!
(By the way -- I tried to find the story on her on MilSpouse.com but it doesn't look like they have it on the site yet. If anyone has a link feel free to post it in the comment section. You can read a little bio about her here though!)
