East Dundee Marine veteran's 'main goal in life is to encourage people'

Diane Ahrens smiles as she flips through a custom-made book filled with photos of new and expectant mothers who have served in the military.

Most of the Chicago-area women are pictured at a baby shower for veterans, hosted annually the last three years by the West Dundee VFW Post 2298 Auxiliary. Others who were unable to attend can be seen graciously accepting the same gifts given to each event-goer: a car seat, a baby bathtub, a Pack 'n Play, a diaper bag full of supplies.

Ahrens has a story to go with almost every photo. She has a fact to connect with almost every face. She has met many of the mothers' newborns, some of whom are pictured in the book.

"(The shower) has probably been the best thing I've been able to work on," said Ahrens, an East Dundee bakery owner and former auxiliary president. "The auxiliary loves it. The community loves it."

Helping to organize the shower every January certainly isn't the only veteran-related project Ahrens has taken on, but it's been the most fun, she said.

The goal is to offer some assistance to veteran mothers going through two major transitional periods at once: returning to civilian life and preparing for parenthood.

The auxiliary works with Veterans Health Administration hospitals to extend an invitation to patients who are expecting, along with their spouses, Ahrens said. She also has helped with two other baby showers at Chicago-area veterans hospitals.

A Marine Corps veteran, Ahrens said she has experienced the difficulties of leaving the military and becoming a mother right away. She served as a military police officer from 1978 through 1980 at Parris Island, South Carolina, where she met her husband, Roger, also a Marine veteran.

"Most veterans very seldom want to ask for anything," Ahrens said. "But when they're on hard times, it's nice to be able to step up and say, 'I've been there. I've done that.'"

Ahrens recently became District 5 president of the VFW Auxiliary Department of Illinois. With the West Dundee VFW Auxiliary, she has had a hand in a variety of projects, including collecting dishes, cleaning supplies, sheets, towels and other basic needs for veterans entering housing assistance programs.

"It takes a huge burden off them because when you're trying to get into housing, now you have rent and utilities," Ahrens said. "To not have to spend a few hundred more dollars on the basics, it makes a big difference."

Ahrens joined the auxiliary in 2011, when a close friend gifted her a lifetime membership. But her desire to help members of the military started long before that.

For 14 of the 24 years she and her husband have been running Piece-A-Cake Bakery in East Dundee, they have been sending boxes of cookies and other baked goods each month to troops overseas.

The initiative, called Operation Sweet Tooth, offers soldiers a "little taste of home," Ahrens said, furthering her endless mission to make their lives a little brighter.

"I feel like that's my main goal in life is to encourage people," Ahrens said. "It's not too late.

"There's always a fresh start. God is good, and that's what you've got to hang on to."