Fayetteville Today

Soldiers often make sacrifices for their country. When people think of the military, many may not realize the sacrifices of military spouses.

Mary Vaughn, the spouse of U.S. Army Capt. John Vaughn, has entered the Boston Marathon to pursue her passion for running and raise money to support the United Service Organization while her husband is deployed to Poland to support Ukraine, according to a report by WTVD.

"It's been most useful during deployment, having something to work toward every single day and look forward to while John has been deployed,” Vaughn told WTVD. “Without it, I would be very stressed.”

John is deployed from Fort Bragg, North Carolina and Mary said she uses his absence as motivation, WTVD reported.

"Being strong for my kids and keeping things moving in the absence of (my husband), for me, it was a big undertaking this deployment, and to be honest, I'm really proud of what I have done this deployment,” Mary told the newscast of her effort.

She and her teammates have helped raise more than $100,000 for the USO, which, among other things, provides entertainment for deployed service members, according to the organization’s website.

"The money being raised by Mary's run is going to programs, whether it be a warrior reset or family reset,” Brian Knight, operations, and programs manager for the Sandhills USO told WTVD. "These are resiliency programs that are meant to help connect or reconnect families while they have things going on in their life and everyone is going through different points in their lives.”

Mary said she is glad she chose to do something that could benefit the military community while John serves far from home.

“I could have just hung out and waited and counted the days but knowing that what I'm doing is helping out other troops and military spouses is so much bigger, and I am really proud of what I have done,” she said.

The Boston Marathon will take place Monday, April 18.