Paintings By Soldier Sold For Funds To Aid Needy Children
Sometimes the best way to make lemonade is with lemons. In the same manner, at times the easiest way to solve a problem is with the items you have on hand. Many people see the wood scraps and paint that are tossed out as trash as just that, garbage. But a Tech Sergeant in the Air Force sees a lot more.
Air Force Tech Sergeant Robert Sommers uses these materials to create paintings. He then sells these paintings to fund needed surgeries for children nearby. A local heart foundation is the beneficiary of his largess, and he is able to donate a tidy sum from his paintings.
Sgt Sommers is the NCO in charge of operations management and takes scraps that he finds in his shop to create works of art. The proceeds from the sales are then donated to pay for necessary heart surgeries for small children whose families do not have the money to pay for such surgeries themselves.
Sommers is a Tech Sgt with the 376th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron in Afghanistan.
The Heart Ward of the local Children’s hospital is a local facility that takes children and infants that need corrective heart surgery. They have two doctors that perform surgeries free of charge, donating their time, but there is needed equipment for these surgeries that must be paid for. An oxygenator is such equipment, one is needed for each surgery and they are disposable, not able to be used again.
During the tour of duty so far, the money raised by Sommers and his cast off artwork has paid for three surgeries by donating funds for three oxgenators.
