2013 in Review
2013 was a wonderful year for us at the Museum of the American Military Family. We continue to grow and mature as an organization. We are very thankful for all of our all-volunteer board members, our friends, supporters and sponsors. We appreciate our writers who sent in stories for our blogs and cards for our Postcard Project. Thanks to donors, we met our $20,000 goal to create our 2014 exhibit, “Sacrifice & Service: The American Military Family, which is being built in collaboration with the National Nuclear Museum of Science and History in Albuquerque.
Here’s where our exhibit will be
We have begun to design the exhibit, and Caroline, our Writer-in-Residence, has completed much of the text panel script. On January 3rd, she and I will sort through all of the quotes we have gathered from military family members over the past several years, and add them to the panels.
Jim Walther, Director of the Nuclear Museum, has begun the set/ elevation drawings and I have started inventorying and collecting artifacts for the display. Of course, we need to extend our gratitude to David, Toby, Sandy, David, Greg, Casey, Charles and Jennifer from the Nuclear museum—all of whom are working alongside us each step of the way, lending their expertise.
Sacrifice & Service: The American Military Family will open on Memorial Day, 2014, and run through Labor Day at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque. The exhibit, much of it interactive, will illustrate the achievements of, and the issues faced by, the mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, and other family members of the men and women who have served the nation’s military since World War II. Themes will include Pride, Culture, Loss, Sacrifice, Deployment, and Reunion, and will offer visitors an opportunity to share their own stories about when a loved one goes off to serve.
We did a lot in 2013!
We participated in the New Mexico Veteran’s Art Show and in the Womyn’s Work Apron Project. We took our Postcard Project on the road. We did two activities with the Cadets at the Albuquerque Institute of Math and Science, presented the film, Service at the Nuclear Museum, and co-hosted several student programs at the New Mexico Veteran’s Memorial.
We sent Operation Footlocker to Kirtland Air Force Base, NM, El Paso, TX, several cities in Virginia and Florida—and we sent Flat Stanley and Flat Stella all over the world!
We wrapped up the year with a fashion show fundraiser co-sponsored by Imbibe and 66 Pinups. Because of generous donations from local businesses, our silent auction was a great success…
We continue to work very closely with the City of Albuquerque’s Cultural Services Department –it has given us space and support to set up our Special Collection in the Main Library in downtown Albuquerque. We are also working with the City to find a permanent location for the seven small 1940’s base housing units, generously donated to us by the Robert Rivera family.
And on February 27, 2014, we will host in partnership with Cultural Services, a special showing of the documentary Brown Babies: Die Mischlingskinder a film describing the search for identity and acceptance of the “Brown Babies” born to white German women and Black American soldiers in the 1950s and 60s. The film will be shown at the South Broadway Cultural Center in Albuquerque. We hope to have guest speakers from the film on hand during the opening reception and for a Q & A session.
We continue to collect stories for our many blogs and conduct interviews for our three podcasts. We really encourage people to send us their personal stories to us! Please consider sending us a postcard or a digital photo of your military family.
Our four big goals for 2014 are:
- Presenting Brown Babies at the South Broadway Cultural Center
- Presenting Sacrifice & Service at the Nuclear Museum
- Rehabbing and relocating the historic housing units to a permanent location
- Starting a robust membership program
All of our goals require money, and we have been writing grants and seeking donations, but it will take a membership program and donations from individual members to help us achieve these goals.
How can you help us?
Please consider making a donation on our website or mailing a check to us at:
MAMF, PO Box 5085 Albuquerque, NM 87185
Please sign up for Goodsearch, a search engine powered by Google, which donates money to us for every Internet search made, or a percentage of purchases made on-line. It is easy to do, and you can sign up by clicking this:
We’d love you visit our website or Facebook and sign our guest book.
If you have military family items you’d like to donate, please call (505) 504-6830 or email us at militaryfamilymuseum@comcast.net for guidance.
On behalf of us at the Museum of the American Military Family, we thank you for your support and wish you a very good 2014.