Scott DeLuzio:    00:00:00    Thanks for tuning in to a Drive On Podcast where we’re focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community, whether you’re a Veteran active duty guard Reserve, or a family member, this podcast we’ll share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. And now let’s get on with the show.  

Scott DeLuzio:    00:00:22    Hey everybody. Today, my guests are Pete and Edie Freudenberger. Pete and Edie, founded the Blue Star Academy, which helps serve some of the unique educational needs of military connected students. And one of the reasons I wanted to have them on the show is because we often talk about the needs of Veterans and service members. but we haven’t talked much about their kids on the show and it’s part of the family. They have a significant impact on the Veteran or service member, who we typically talk about on this podcast. And if those children’s needs aren’t being met, then it’s likely that there’s an added stress on the rest of the family, including the Veteran and the service member and potentially their spouse as well. So with that, welcome to the show, Pete and Edie. Why don’t you, tell us a little bit about yourselves and your backgrounds.  

Pete Freudenberger    00:01:11    Hi, I am Pete Freudenberger, really glad to be here. I am an Army Veteran, a licensed clinical social worker, and really have dedicated my life to working with the military community. And one of the things that I’m really excited about getting into today is talking about the family. Because as you said, that’s certainly an underserved portion of the population in the military, right? 

Edie Freudenberger: And I’m his wife, Edie and my affiliation with the military is through my husband and I’m not affiliated, but he’s clearly a Veteran. I’ve experienced motherhood with children of a Veteran and I’m a spouse of a Veteran. So I have my own interactions with the VA, with the Veteran community, Pete is so active in the community that we attend parades. We go to events, we try to keep our kids up to date on what’s going on. So that’s kind of my affiliation, my profession as an educator. So Pete’s the social worker and I’m the educator. I have my doctorate in education. and I have focused on military connected children or students.  

Scott DeLuzio:    00:02:28    Yeah, that’s great. And so these joint forces that you have with both of your backgrounds really makes logical sense that you guys would come together and combine your efforts together to help out these military children. And honestly, when you first reached out to me about being on the show, I didn’t really know that there was anything unique about the educational needs of military connected students. And I’m sure that might be true of some of the listeners as well, which is again why I wanted to have you on the show to raise awareness for these issues. My son was only about a year and a half old when I got out of the Army. So I never really had to consider his educational needs with regards to my military affiliation, while I was in. So what are some of the things that your organization, the Blue Star Academy does to bridge the gap for these students?  

Edie Freudenberger:   00:03:27    So just to give a little bit of background, like you said, you didn’t know a lot of people don’t know, there are about 2 million military connected children in the US; about 80% of them are in the public school system. And that’s not necessarily including kids who are related to Veterans or Veteran connected. We’re not sure that they’re counted as well as militar...