1. Michael Airington
Speech
A 26 year old army veteran once said “a veteran is someone who, at one point in his life,
wrote a blank check made payable to the United States of America for an amount of up to and
including my life. That is honor and there are way too many people in this country who no
longer understand it” For my senior project I am raising money for disabled and retired war
veterans returning home from duty. I raised the money by accepting donations and selling t-shirts
that represent the United States military. I chose this topic because I have been interested in the
military since childhood and since then my patriotism has grown exponentially.
I chose to raise money for disabled veterans for my final product. The method of raising
the money came through creating and selling t-shirts and accepting donations. The reason I chose
to raise money is because it is one necessity that disabled veterans have so little of. The first step
in creating my final product was to create a design for the shirts that I would sell. I first sketched
out the design by hand on computer paper. The next step was to sketch out a design for the
banner that would serve as the advertisement for the shirts and donations. After the designs were
finished I proceed to get Premier Image to screen my design on 30 shirts and a 2x4 banner. Once
this was completed and they accepted my design I could then start raising money. I then asked
the manager of the free home Publix if I could set up at table in front of the store to raise money
and sell shirts. I set a goal to how much money I would like to raise. I calculated this goal by
adding the total sum of the money I spent on the shirts and a 2x4 banner, which was around $400
total. I would sell the t-shirts at $10 per shirt. My goal was set at $500, which is a reasonable
goal to accomplish. I spent a total of 13 hours selling the t shirts in front of the Publix. When I
raised all the money I would then donate it to the wounded warrior project. The organization was
created to give support to the disabled veterans and their families. Doing this will bring aid in
evolving to a world that has forgotten them. My project facilitator is Colonel Holly, the ROTC
teacher hear at creek view high school. I chose him because he has had prior experience in the
United States army. He has completed two tours in Iraq and seemed like the right person to be
my facilitator. I faced a number of problems while doing my project. The first of which was that
the t shirts and banner would not be completed in time for when I wanted to sell them. To solve
this I just moved back my whole schedule to fit the time period when I had to have my project
done. The next problem I faced was the cost of the shirts and banner. I did not know how much it
would cost and I was hoping it was in my budget. I had to increase my budget by $50 to fit it in.
I learned that the volunteers for the wounded warrior project are some of the most amazing and
caring people I have ever met. Something that I can take away from this would be that veterans
don’t want sympathy or money they want someone who cares for them. The question was asked
to me, would you like to pursue this field of work? My answer is yes, because I have always
been fascinated by the military and especially the Marine Corps. There are many things I can
2. take away from doing this project. One is how veterans are so proud that they have served there
country. The next is how the wounded warrior project has touched and changed so many lives.
The next time one sees a veteran go and thank them for putting there lives on the line for the
name of freedom. Thank you judges.
