Peters Twp. organization donates to military organization
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Hewitt
Jennifer Hewitt awards Arthur Schwotzer with the Patriot of Patriot award at the fundraiser’s luncheon.
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Hewitt
Arthur Schwotzer, a World War II veteran from Peters Township, was awarded the Patriot of Patriot award at the fundraiser’s luncheon.
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Hewitt
The color guard before the golf outing.
Jennifer Hewitt knows she has it easy. Life has its challenges, sure, but she said she’s lucky.
“I lead a very comfortable, safe and easy life in the South Hills of Pittsburgh,” Hewitt said. “When you do that, it’s easy sometimes to lose sight of all of the effort of people like our men and women in uniform, who do so many things that make my life easy that I don’t even, sadly, think about day to day.”
Last month, Hewitt was part of a group that led a fundraiser for Folds of Honor, a nonprofit organization that provides educational scholarships to children and spouses of fallen or disabled service-members. The Women’s Golf Association at Valleybrook Country Club in Peters Township followed up its $22,000 fundraiser from last year with a $40,000 for FOH this year.
“When we had this opportunity, it was an honor and a privilege to work with these people,” Hewitt said. “Working with this charity brought out the best in my efforts to do this and in the committee’s efforts. I think a lot of people want to do things that help the military, but sometimes we just don’t have that opportunity. This was an opportunity that was put in front of people with a simple question: ‘Will you help us?’ We heard so many times, ‘We can’t do enough for the military.'”
Rather than host one event to raise money, which the group had done in the past, Hewitt and Phyllis Buettner, who co-chaired the fundraiser together, decided to make it a week-long fundraiser called Saluting Patriots Week. The group chose FOH last year as an organization to raise money for due to the “high percentage of every dollar” that goes to families and veterans, Hewitt said.
The kickoff event on Sept. 8 was a nine-hole, informal golf tournament and a barbecue.
Then on Sept. 12, they hosted a 13-minute challenge, where people take turns holding a folded American flag for 13 minutes to honor the 13 folds in the flag. As people stood, others pledged money. The event went on for nearly nine hours, with countless people taking part, Hewitt said.
“It was really very moving to participate in it,” Hewitt said.
After various golf awards for longest drive and longest putt on Sept. 13, the main golf event was the following day.
The event started with the colors being presented by the Peters Township Veterans of Foreign Wars post and the honoring of Arthur Schwotzer, a World Warr II veteran from Peters Township, with the Patriot of Patriot award. Then, Nicholas Moffett, a University of Pittsburgh student, received a FOH scholarship.
FOH’s motto is “Honor their sacrifice, educate their legacy,” and that’s what Hewitt wanted people to take away from the fundraiser.
“Every time a soldier is killed or disabled as a result of their service, there’s a void in that service member’s family,” Hewitt said. “And you are saying, ‘I will step into that gap and stand in that gap for you.’ You stood for me; I’m going to stand for you now with your family and I will ‘honor your sacrifice and educate your legacy.'”
Hewitt, whose husband, father-in-law and brother-in-law are all veterans, said her passion for the military was met by others in the community.
“I think there are a lot of people who are so willing to help a worthy cause like this, especially the military,” Hewitt said. “It’s just that it’s really far removed from our day to day life. When there was a way to put that desire to support the military into action, they were so ready to do it.”
FOH scholarships range up to $5,000 each, meaning the $40,000 donated from the Women’s Golf Association at Valleybrook Country Club could provide eight or more scholarships for spouses and children of fallen or disabled service-members.
“I think people realize what our military does for us and the huge sacrifices not only the service members but their families make,” Hewitt said.