Helping soldiers help students overseas

WORLAND - Worland school students are lending a helping hand to students overseas at the behest of a Worland High School graduate.

Eli Varney, captain of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 297th Infantry Regiment for the Wyoming National Guard, and 2006 graduate of WHS, is serving with his unit in Kosovo.

According to a letter and Memorandum for Record that Varney wrote, he is deployed with 137 soldiers, 56 of whom are from Wyoming, from Charlie Company and they are providing support to local communities and monitoring the border between Kosovo and Serbia.

"Currently, we are working with schools that have very limited support and we are attempting to help them with basic educational items ... The Kosovo students have nothing and every little pencil or paper will be greatly appreciated," he wrote.

In a telephone interview last week, Varney said they are working with 12-15 schools throughout Kosovo. He said some schools in the country are "normal" and similar to what we are used to with 12 to 15 students per classroom, others may only have one to two students. He added that some schools are so remote that when winter hits the students stay at the school and can only travel within about a five-mile radius due to the weather conditions.

Varney said they patrol the administrative boundary line and during the patrols they realized as a unit they wanted to have a positive influence on the people in Kosovo. He said in order to do that they knew they could reach the youth and the schools.

The idea of soldiers is body armor, helmets and sunglasses, but they want to show the Kosovo people that they are "normal" and that they are human. "We want to give them the insight that we are very human," he said.

In order to reach out they decided to set up an "adopt-a-school" program for the schools, which are K-7 and 8-12. The supplies will be distributed to students throughout Kosovo. He said they received permission from the battalion commander and worked with the liaison monitoring teams to set up the program.

The soldiers began reaching out to the schools in September, but Varney noted that the mail takes four to five weeks.

They have already received 30 boxes as part of the program. For each box they receive they take a photo of them distributing the school supplies and send it back to the donating school.

Worland schools are participating or will be participating in the adopt-a-school program.

Worland Middle School has collected numerous supplies already with the intent on getting them mailed last week in hopes of them arriving around Christmastime, according to Principal Ryan Clark.

"Eli reached out to me about the first of September. Eli Varney was a student of mine as I was a teacher at the high school. When he emailed me I thought this was a very intriguing mission as he was overseas, and a wonderful opportunity for our students to give back, to learn a little bit about how students go to school in other countries, how they are different from us," Clark said.

He said the student council has spearheaded the project under the direction of advisor Debbie Keller. Each homeroom is competing to see who can bring the most school supplies, Clark added.

The service project has gone "quite well."

"We normally do a canned food drive for the community and this year we have changed it to the school supply drive," Clark said, but added they may still do a canned food drive.

He said students have provided great support for the school supply drive, with 90% of the donations coming from students and the rest from staff.

He said most of the donations have been school supplies, although Varney also said education toys and sports equipment would be appreciated.

For Worland High School and South Side Elementary the school supply drive will be conducted after the new year.

WHS Assistant Principal Brian Gunderson said, "Because of other commitments, we have decided to push the Adopt-A-School Program to the new year." He said Andee Bilodeau is heading up that project with a couple of student groups.

South Side Principal Ken Dietz said they are going to participate in the adopt-a-school program but likely not start collecting supplies until after Christmas.

He said when they begin they are going to assign each of the 10 classrooms a specific school supply item to collect.

East Side Principal Chris Peterson said they would be sending a list, of the items Varney provided, home with each student and be collecting them throughout the month of December until the Christmas break.

"I think about Thanksgiving and being grateful for what you have and this is an opportunity to give to folks who don't have as much as we do," Peterson said last week.

West Side Principal Bruce Miller, also a former teacher of Varney's said they sent out parts of the letter from Capt. Varney asking kids and parents to search for those items and donate them. "We'll be collecting those over the next three weeks before Christmas break and likely combine them with East Side's to ship over," Miller said.

He added that anyone else in the community who wants to help can drop off donations to West Side before Christmas break, which begins Monday, Dec. 23.

Items listed in Varney's letter include basic supplies such as pens, pencils, paper, colored paper, colored pencils, glue and notebooks; children's education toys such as wooden shaped blocks, puzzles, games; sports equipment such as soccer balls, Frisbees, cones, jerseys; and anything else would be appreciated, he noted.

In his telephone interview, Varney said notebooks, pencils and pencil sharpeners are the biggest need. He said he met one family where the mother works for four Euros a day cracking walnuts. "She's tougher than me," he said.

The unit will be leaving in the spring but Varney has already reached out to his replacement. Varney said an Oregon National Guard unit will be taking the Charlie Company's place and will continue the adopt-a-school program.

"The one thing we want to avoid is cutting off the program after we leave," he said.

But reaching out to the schools with supplies is not the only way they show the students they are "normal." They also go and play basketball, soccer and volleyball with them. He noted the students are talented and "they love beating us."

In addition to the schools the Guard members are reaching out to community members and churches.

Varney said they have done landscaping for churches especially during Muslim and Eastern Orthodox holidays.

They have fixed stairs and sidewalks, they have swept many a chimney with many of the homes getting heat from wood. They have also built a few chicken fences, he said.

KOSOVO MISSION

The soldiers deployed in May for three weeks of training in Fort Bliss, Texas, and additional training in Germany. They are performing a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and have been assigned to the U.S. European Command.

This is the first time the Wyoming infantry unit has deployed since organizing in 2016.

The deployed soldiers are from Colorado, Montana, Utah and the Wyoming communities of Afton, Bondurant, Casper, Cheyenne, Cowley, Dubois, Evanston, Gillette, Green River, Guernsey, Jackson, Laramie, Lyman, Marbleton, Pinedale, Rawlins, Saratoga, Sheridan, Torrington, Wheatland and Worland.

In speaking to Varney just prior to Thanksgiving, he did note they would have turkey the next day and had received a visit from Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon and Adjutant General Porter earlier in the week.

"They came out to see us. It was very much appreciated. It shows they are looking out for us," he said.

The unit will be returning home in the spring, stopping first in Fort Bliss, Texas, Varney said. Then he will be able to return to his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he lives with his wife Katie and 6-month-old son Finn.

This is Varney's second deployment with the Guard, the first one was in 2013 with the 133rd out of Laramie.

He joined the Guard at the age of 17, 15 years ago, and was a member of the C Battery, then he joined the 133rd, then the 1041st and when it dissolved he became a member of the Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 297th Infantry Regiment out of Afton. He said that while he lives in Colorado he loves Wyoming and comes to Wyoming for Guard drill each month.

He said he enjoys the National Guard because of the sense of family it provides and it is an opportunity to give back to the state of Wyoming.

"We just want everyone to know back home we love them and can't wait to see them," he said.