McKeesport seniors raising money for veterans
All funds collected through the project will benefit Disabled American Veterans.
The McKeesport Area High School senior class student government is starting its annual fundraiser, and is inviting the Tiger community to help them out.
This is the third year the senior class has led the fundraiser, which has raised around $3,200 in the past two years. All the funds go toward Disabled American Veterans, a national nonprofit organization that supports disabled veterans.
Senior class co-sponsors Brian and Stacey Tharp introduced the idea to the students and said they have fully embraced it. The fundraiser includes displaying flags that represent individual veterans who have received donations in their name.
Since they started doing the fundraisers, Brian and Stacey have had the senior president take charge of leading the fundraiser for DAV. This year it’s Ryenn Thomas.
“So we really try to empower, particularly the senior class president,” Brian Tharp said. “For the past couple of years, we’ve kind of put them in charge of sending the letters to various community groups and so on, and then thank you letters. But it’s our senior class executive board that, when we do the actual field of flags, they’re the ones that set that up out in front of McKeesport High School for Veterans Day.”
Donations can be submitted online at https://support. dav.org/participant/Brian- Tharp, and checks can be made out to Disabled American Veterans and dropped off at the main office of the high school. As of press time, they had raised $345 of their $500 goal.
Donations will be accepted through Oct. 24. Brian Tharp said their goal is to start low, and they would be happy to go over $500.
“I think the first year, no one really knew too much about it,” he said. “What was really cool that first year is we had a senior class president who had a mom who was serving in the military. So I think there was a lot of buy-in that initial year.
“And like I said, we just really tried to empower the idea, you’re not only elected here to be senior class president, secretary or on the executive board, there is also this aspect that we want you to get, to give back to your community.”
DAV has helped millions of veterans find health care, employment, education and more. DAV even takes veterans to doctor appointments if they need it.
“My wife, Stacy, and I have been doing senior class for probably 15 or 16 years, and we always wanted it to be more than just prom, graduation, especially with the elected leadership,” Brian Tharp said. “Just giving them an opportunity to kind of give back to the community. And we just received a couple of flyers about Disabled American Veterans a couple of years ago, and we actually had the auxiliary kind of look into it, and they kind of gave a thumbs up.
“This is a pretty worthy cause, and it kind of went forward with that. And I know they do a lot of stuff, not only locally, but of course, across the nation.”
More information about DAV can be found on its website at www.ihelpveterans. org.
