Inspiring Women on a Mission: American Mothers

To learn what inspired the founding of American Mother’s Inc. during the Great Depression, you need to go all the way back to the Civil War era and a woman named Anna Reeves Jarvis, the inspiration of the Mother’s Day holiday we celebrate in May.

Anna lived in Virginia and over the course of 17 years gave birth to 11 children. Only four survived to adulthood the rest taken by diseases. This prompted Anna to organize moms into work clubs that would help improve health and sanitary conditions in the region. During the Civil War, the work of mother’s clubs evolved into treating soldiers on both sides of the conflict. After the war, Anna organized a “Mother’s Friendship Day” for soldiers and their families from both sides of the conflict.

By anyone’s standard, Anna had lived a life full of sacrifice, love and kindness and three years after her death in 1905, her daughter organized the first Mother’s Day in her honor.

Fast forward to 1931. President Wilson has already made Mother’s Day a national holiday, women now have the right to vote and the country is again in the throes of crisis – this time the Great Depression.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt announces the Mothers Committee, a nationwide program for the better observance of Mother’s Day that would help dependent mothers and needy children. Within two years, there are committees in almost every state, working to promote the Golden Rule and, according to the American Mothers website, share the philosophy that “the truest tribute that can be paid to Mother is to share with others the love that she so generously and often sacrificially lavished upon us.”

Funds are raised for local hospitals, old age homes, orphanages, churches and other groups to improve the welfare of all.

In 1935, the American Mothers Committee of the J.C. Penney’s Golden Rule Foundation met at the Waldorf Astoria to present the first American Mother of the Year award. The thought was that putting the spotlight on an admirable mother would be inspirational to all.

Every year since, American Mothers has honored one woman from every state, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

But American Mothers isn’t just about an annual honor (as important as that is). They have numerous programs to promote the health and welfare of mothers and children.

• The Golden Rule Movement encourages moms to “do what they do best…teach kindness to others.” It provides financial and communications support to programs that benefit mothers and children though its Golden Rule Grant.
• American Mother’s also established the Mother of Achievement award in 2012 to recognize outstanding women who are making an impact outside of their own families.
• In May, the National Mom-to-Mom Day of Service asks moms to collect household items for mothers in shelters who are rebuilding their lives after domestic violence or human trafficking.
• The ABC Quilts program (the initials stand for At-Risk Babies and Children) is a volunteer movement to create quilts and donate them to hospitals and agencies that help children who are HIV-positive, affected by their mother’s drug or alcohol abuse while pregnant, or abandoned. The program was the brainchild of Ellen Ahlgren, a New Hampshire Mom of the Year, and American Mothers adopted the project as a national program in 1992.
• From August to January each year, American Mothers runs a national 5^th grade essay contest on “What My Mother Means to Me,” ensuring that future generations are aware of the contributions of mothers everywhere.

And although American Mothers is, by definition, a U.S.-based organization, it is now reaching out to the rest of the world. It works with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and the Commission on the Status of Women to raise awareness about violence against women and children worldwide.

It also has a partnership with other organizations to help educate the public on human trafficking.

At the heart of this organization is the idea of #MomPower; a belief that the maternal energy and leadership of moms everywhere can promote empathy, change communities and, ultimately, heal the world.

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