Multifaceted Mom Is National Finalist

Navy Wife Nominated for Spouse of Year

Corina DuBois calls herself a stay-at-home mom, but the Military Spouse of the Year contender's roles as entrepreneur, fitness franchise owner, promising children's author and potential foster parent suggest there's more to the story.

The Silver Spring mother of three is the sole Washington area finalist for Military Spouse magazine's second annual award, which will recognize one military wife or husband nationwide for patriotism, professionalism and humanity.

DuBois, a Navy veteran, was nominated by her husband, Harold, a commander with Naval District Washington.

"It was a huge surprise. . . . I was really touched when I read his nominating essay," DuBois said. Her husband's nomination effort was especially significant because he was on a nine-month deployment to Iraq at the time, she said.

Judges chose DuBois last month as one of 10 Spouse of the Year finalists from the Navy. People can go online to vote for one candidate from each of the armed services' five branches. The branch winners will compete for the military-wide Spouse of the Year title in the spring. Nominations were open to the 1.1 million spouses of active-duty, reserve or National Guard military members, according to the contest's Web site.

Besides being a mother to three children -- Holden, 4, Nolan, 3, and Cole, 5 months -- DuBois is the founder of the Internet company Celebrate Mama!, which offers marketing and event-planning assistance for mothers and mom-owned businesses nationwide.

"By providing . . . a national company that reaches out to other families, I feel as if I can make change here at home while my husband serves to build strong communities elsewhere," DuBois said.

DuBois said she hopes to eventually offer the company's resources to Crossway Community, a Kensington-based nonprofit organization that aids single, at-risk mothers and their children.

She is also a franchise owner of Stroller Strides, a national fitness organization that provides strength-building, abdominal and stretching exercise classes to mothers and their stroller-riding children. DuBois's franchise runs classes in Silver Spring, Bethesda, Rockville and Gaithersburg.

When her son Nolan's epilepsy was diagnosed, DuBois couldn't find a book to explain the disease to him in simple terms. So she wrote her own, and the children's book manuscript has been picked up by a book agent.

"It explains what happens during a seizure in a kid-friendly, non-scary way," she said.

DuBois said she and her husband also have become licensed foster-to-adopt parents through the Montgomery County Department of Social Services, with the hope of welcoming another child into their family.

Harold DuBois, who has returned from Iraq, expressed pride for his wife's accomplishments in his nomination essay.

"She took motherhood and entrepreneurship and melded the two into something amazing for women all over the nation," he wrote. "It is a calling that allows her to enhance other moms' lives through community and health, with our boys tagging along for the ride."

DuBois said she is grateful for the support she has received from the civilian community as a military mom and a Spouse of the Year candidate.

"The hardest thing is being in a community where not everyone supports the war," she said. "So I was really touched and surprised that even people who don't support it came out to support us as a family."

Votes for each military branch's winners will be accepted through Christmas Eve at http://www.msoy.milspouse.com. As of Monday, DuBois was in third place among the Navy branch's finalists.