Mothers and Daughters Descend on DC for Mothers Day

    Gilda Carbonaro, a mother and teacher from Maryland, whose son died one year ago today will be available for comments at the Rayburn building followed by a meeting with other military moms, actress Gaby Hoffman and Florida members of the peace group CODEPINK at Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's office and a Congressional Tea. Thursday the 10th is the one year anniversary of the death of Gilda's son, Alex. Carbonaro, 28, a marine with the 2nd reconnaissance battalion, died of injuries he sustained May 1, 2006 while conducting combat operations in Anbar province of Iraq.

WHEN & WHERE: Thursday, May10th
Lunch with Military Moms: 1:30-2:45pm, Rayburn Cafeteria
Congressional Tea with Representatives: 4:30pm, Mott House 122 Maryland Ave

Military moms Tina Richards, Sara Rich- mother of Suzanne Swift, Cindy Kaylor and Stefanie Pelkey along with Representatives Jane Harman, Maxine Waters, Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Barbara Lee and Senator Barbara Boxer will attend the Congressional Tea to show support of those who have lost loved ones in the war and to bring attention to fact that the troops need to be brought home now.

    "The original intent of Mother's Day was not to give your mom chocolates or breakfast in bed, but for mothers to join together to stop war," says Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK. As well as being in the halls of Congress near everyday, CODEPINK works very closely in support of military mothers, military families and veteran organizations.

For more information, please see www.codepinkalert.org
See CODEPINK in action at www.youtube.com/dontbuybushswar .
To set up interviews with CODEPINK cofounders or any other personalities listed above before Mother's Day or during the 5 days of action please contact Dana Balicki (202) 422-8624 or dana@codepinkalert.org.

BIOS:
Stefanie Pelkey is a retired military officer - she left in September 2004 and her husband Michael, also in the military died on November 5, 2004. She was the first female to serve in the Field Artillery Battalion (1st of the 94th Field Artillery Battalion in Idar-Oberstien, Germany) and one of the first three females in Germany to ever be placed in an all-male combat arms unit

Tina Richards is the founder of Grassroots America, a civic minded organization for Peace and Social Justice..  She is the mother of a Marine who served two tours in Iraq.  She came to DC in January to stop her son's third deployment aa he suffered from PTSD and undiagnosed Tramatic Brain Injury, but has stayed to spearhead the "Swarm on Congress" in an effort to end the war. 

Sara Rich is the mother of an AWOL US soldier facing re-deployment to Iraq. Sara's daughter Suzanne Swift searched her soul and decided that she could not go back to Iraq and continue to go out on what she calls "useless missions." Nor could she continue to cope with the constant sexual harassment and fear of rape by her own officers and fellow soldiers that she had to endure.


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