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Stuck at the Front Lines: Helping Camp Hope Residents

By Abbie Seay, The Briarwood School, School Buzz Editor | October 5, 2016

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Camp Hope veterans and Briarwood students

A few of the Briarwood Executive Council students pose with Camp Hope veterans after the delivery of supplies. (From left: Henry Bean, Abbie Seay and Sarah Cate Jones with veterans from Camp Hope.)

Recently, Briarwood’s Student Council held a supply drive in which students from 7th through 12th grades brought in donations for the residents of Camp Hope, a treatment facility in Houston for veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Veterans and their immediate family members find healing, help and hope there while participating in intensive peer support and mentoring programs. These veterans have served our country and have come back broken. Camp Hope helps them put their lives back together, get jobs and get back to living productive lives.

I first heard about Camp Hope from National Charity League. One of the priorities of Camp Hope is to invite many veterans to come and speak to students; the veterans I heard speak shared their stories and struggles with drug and alcohol addictions and attempts at suicide. Camp Hope helps them get their lives back together.

I was so affected by the veterans’ stories and the help they were getting from Camp Hope, that I felt it was my duty, as a member of our Executive Student Council, to inform our Advisors of this wonderful organization. The Council agreed with my desire to help. We communicated with Mr. Jim Mehrmann, Captain USN (Ret) who is head of Camp Hope’s outreach program. He made us aware of the supplies that were needed and told us how we could help.

With all grade-level contributions combined, Briarwood students generated nearly $2,000 of supplies. Students came to Briarwood and, for the first hour, learned what PTSD is and how it can happen not just to veterans, but to anyone. After this informative discussion, we sorted and organized the supplies. The following weekend, several of us delivered the collected supplies to Camp Hope. The veterans there gave us a helping hand unloading the supplies. They assured us of their appreciation and thanked us over and over for our efforts.