HPA and GSMS Grade Eight LA
“ A Small Thing We Can Do to Help”
Quote by Maria Millard, Director of Camp Kieve’s Veterans’ Program
Three friends –soldiers-who had been deployed to Iraq were eating in a mess hall when it was hit by a suicide bomber. These three and other survivors were immediately evacuated by helicopter to hospitals to be treated for PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Once the men could walk, they were sent to US hospitals and, eventually, home. They had totally lost touch with one another. Months later the three happened to all sign up for the veterans’ program at Camp Kieve in Nobleboro, which serves veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. At Kieve, they were miraculously, and joyously, reunited. This is exactly what Dick Kennedy and Maria Millard wanted: for soldiers to have a place where their experiences and memories could be shared with men and women who know firsthand exactly what they went through.
Dick Kennedy is the son of Don Kennedy, who started the boys’ camp at Kieve in 1926. In the 1970’s, Don initiated more programs to serve a wider range of kids. In 2001, Dick began a 9/11 camp for those affected by the World Trade Center attacks. Then, in 2009, he had the idea for a similar camp for veterans of the armed forces, because the 9/11 program was so successful. He knew that there really wasn’t a place for soldiers to gather and talk. The army only provides a power-point presentation when a soldier’s tour is over basically saying “act normal.” But when they get home, soldiers are simply shoved into normal life and can be emotionally damaged by their memories of what they saw and did.
My father, a sergeant first class, and my mother were two of about forty volunteers for the first two one-week sessions of the veterans’ camp at Kieve, so I got to see the operation in action. At first light, some of the soldiers attended chapel, where a local pastor volunteered her services. At nine everybody walked or drove to breakfast. The rest of the day included choices of snowshoeing, ice fishing, indoor rock climbing, pottery, spoon carving, and, for a lucky few, massages. Snacks were provided all day. At eight, everyone filtered into the building at the bottom of the hill for dinner and then an after-dinner activity.
Maria Millard told me that in the first two sessions of the program, they helped about forty people spend quality time with their families and make new friends who they could talk to and connect with. She said she wants to serve ten times as many veterans this year.
Maria said if she were to receive the grant from CTL, it would go into replication: to fund another week of the program this year. Kieve is also teaching camps in North Carolina, Texas, and Minnesota about what they did and learned from the program, so similar opportunities can be made available to veterans in other parts of the country.
At the end of his week at Kieve, a soldier presented a slide show of pictures he had taken while he was on tour in Iraq. The show was rewarded with frequent calls of "Hey, I remember that!” “Boy, do I have a story for that one!” “Hey, when did you take that?” and “That brings back memories.” I watched as the soldiers’ eyes lit up at certain images and as they turned to new friends to tell them about a flashback. The veterans’ program at Kieve is the only place I know that this kind of healing happens. It’s something I strongly support, and something you can, too.