More than 5,000 items were donated to the Veterans Affairs medical center at Jefferson Barracks through Project Patriot, a program run by sophomore Myra Dotzel. Dotzel has a deep connection connection to the military.
“Just about every guy on my dad’s side (of the family) has been a veteran,” Dotzel said. “It’s a big, huge part of my life.”
Dotzel is working to get her Girl Scout Gold Award, which prompted her to start the project.
“I feel like I still would’ve done the project without Girl Scouts, but it just wouldn’t have been as big,” Dotzel said.
The project ran from Nov. 10-21 and there were collection boxes in three locations outside of the school. At Green Trails Elementary 1,771 items were collected, 1,120 at Sam’s Club, 55 at a private business, and 1,215 at Myra’s church.
“There was definitely more than I expected to get,” Dotzel said. “But, the more the merrier!”
Dotzel was not the only one happy about the the flood of donations. Even aside from the other locations, the number of items collected at school — 1,161 — was also a pleasant surprise.
“We’ve actually had a lot of donated items, not just a few here and there,” senior Udval Tsolmonkhuu, co-president of ProjectHelp said.
One reason that the project was able to grow was the aid of ProjectHelp community service group.
“Project Help, with Mrs. Lukowski and the board of execs, and all the volunteers were really, really supportive,” Dotzel said.
ProjectHelp put its donation efforts toward Project Patriot instead of its usual veteran support project, soldier boxes.
“It’s taking the soldier boxes to a whole different level,” Tsolmonkhuu said. “It’s not just a certain group of veterans, it’s an overall large population of veterans that we’re targeting this year.”
Besides just being bigger than the soldier boxes, Project Patriot addresses a slightly different issue, because the soldier boxes went to active soldiers while fighting, rather than struggling veterans at home.
“The reason that we were so enthusiastic about being involved in this is because while it’s wonderful to support our troops overseas; those men and women come home and don’t always have the resources to really live the type of life the rest of us enjoy,” ProjectHelp sponsor Mrs. Laura Lukowski said. “This is something where we could support Myra and really give back to our veterans.”
Project Patriot was important to the student leaders in ProjectHelp as well.
“I feel it’s really important to support our soldiers,” Project Help co-president senior Jorris Robinson said. “I have family members of my own in the Army–retired veterans. We always want to do something like this each year, so even students remember that our freedom has a price.”
Despite all the support ProjectHelp gave, Dotzel was still the driving force behind Project Patriot.
“It was Myra’s idea,” Robinson said. “So we’re basically just here to help her, like distribute the boxes, and get the word out, and make the banners and stuff like that.”
Dotzel said she is proud of the outcome of the project.
“Right now I’m really really busy; I’m taking five honors classes, I’m taking piano lessons, I have art lessons,” Dotzel said. “Despite all that, I still find time in my day to do good, to give back to the community.”
Dotzel recognizes the need for soldier appreciation.
“I think it’s a big issue because people just don’t give them enough credit for what they do,” Dotzel said. “They send these soldiers out, and some of them lose their lives; they lose their health, their families, anything, and then they’re supposed to come back and just pick up where they left off. It’s impossible.”
Many soldiers find that when they get back home, they don’t know how to start their lives again after experiencing war. Recently returned veterans have high risks of homelessness, as well as emotional disorders and suicide.
“When they come back, it’s like you just plop them back into society and tell them to be normal again, and they can’t,” Robinson said.
Veteran care is a continuous need in U.S. society.
“I think that [veteran care] will always be a perpetual issue, because as long as you keep on sending them overseas to war, their problems are never going to end,” Dotzel said. “We’re always going to need to keep up with them and serve them as they’ve served us.”
Those involved with Project Patriot said that and other soldier charities go a long way toward helping out.
“I feel like if a lot of people contribute to the cause, then it’s not going to be totally solved, but it will make a big difference,” Tsolmonkhuu said.
