A gold star family is someone who has a family member or friend who passed away that served in one of the branches of the military. This member doesn’t have to die in the line of battle for them to be considered a gold star family.

CWU softball and CWU’s Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) will host a gold star softball game on May 1 at 1 p.m. 

Anna Reid, a Military Science (MS) four within the ROTC program, said this game has been in the works for the past couple of months.

“For the past two months we have been organizing it and this is the first time that CWU has ever organized it before,” Reid said. “The softball coach, who is apparently new to CWU, did a gold star family event with his last school he was coaching at and he wants to incorporate that here at CWU.”

Reid said she was honored that someone without a gold star family background wanted to put on an event.

“It’s honoring honestly,” Reid said. “Someone that’s not necessarily in the military wants to host something that’s honoring the military members. It’s pretty nice.”

Reid said they will be hosting 56 people from 15 gold star families at the event. Anyone can show up to watch.

They want to put on this game to bring awareness to gold star families.

“These families have paid the ultimate price,” Reid said. “They had a son, daughter, father, wife and husband who served in the military and they paid the ultimate price with their life. We want to ensure that these families aren’t forgotten, that they are still being celebrated and honored for what they have done for our country.”