Green Beret Inspires Mom To Send Help

[Richard]

20th SFGA soldier's story.

Green Beret Inspires Mom To Send Help
Julie Wurth, The News Gazette, 27 Nov 2009

When Diane Meister's son Ryan was deployed to Afghanistan in July, one of his first e-mails home was troubling.

The e-mails focused not on the military conflict but on how different everything in Afghanistan was – the terrain, the lifestyle, the desperate poverty. He was particularly struck by the children, who couldn't read and worked every day just to survive.

"But Momma, the children," Meister, a Green Beret, told his mother, who is a fifth-grade teacher in Urbana. "What's going to happen to them? They have nowhere to go."

He called Afghanistan a "Third World country wannabe. They don't have enough to even be a Third World country," Diane Meister said. "Even though he was serving, he realized how fortunate he was."

Meister, who works at Yankee Ridge Elementary School, organized a collection drive for Afghan children that was adopted by the school's PTA. Families are sending in soap, lotion, toothbrushes and other toiletries, as well as school supplies, snack bags, mixed nuts, trail mix and hard candy to send to her son, who will distribute them to the children there. Students have also drawn pictures and written notes for Ryan Meister and his fellow service members, and others have contributed packing supplies and money to defray shipping costs.

Each year the PTA organizes a "Giving Project" at Yankee Ridge to encourage students to show concern for others, said PTA President Beth Welbes. In years past, they have raised money for victims of Hurricane Katrina, made blankets for premature babies or collected "Dimes for DSC," the Developmental Services Center.

This year, Welbes said, "we wanted to choose a project that was near and dear to the heart of one of our Yankee Ridge families." The intent is to allow all families to participate, even if they can't afford to donate, she said.

All 16 classrooms are participating, and several were overflowing with bags of donations this week.

Participants can color a patriotic heart to put on the wall under the project's name, "Yankee Ridge Cares."

The students are already familiar with Ryan Meister, 28, who grew up in Urbana. He's visited Yankee Ridge several times while on leave from his Special Forces training to talk about life in the military. Fifth-graders will often ask Diane Meister, "Did you hear from Ryan today?"

She said her son "did things backward," earning his master's degree in political science and finance before entering the military.

He joined the National Guard and "just got so interested in the Special Forces he ended up there."

"He thinks anybody who is a politician should serve their country first," she said.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/pol...m_to_send_help

[Pete]

Way to go Trooper, Mom and Kids at the school.

The picture looks like it was taken while he was talking to a classroom of students.

[Utah Bob]

Originally Posted by Pete

Way to go Trooper, Mom and Kids at the school.

The picture looks like it was taken while he was talking to a classroom of students.

Or a chick in a bar.