Navy vet gathers cards for soldiers

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Dalene Marie Scott remembers what it was like to be in the military and away from home over Christmas.

That’s one reason the four-year Navy veteran and Youngstown State University senior created her own Christmas card drive to help cheer wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Scott, 28, was a cook on the aircraft carrier the USS John F. Kennedy and remembers the Navy providing bins full of cards from schoolchildren, church groups and individuals who just sent holiday cards to the military, asking that they be given to active personnel.

“I took as many as I could,” Scott recalled. “It was really so uplifting. It made you feel so good.”

Scott, daughter of Dalene Scott in Washington State and the late Jack Scott, grew up in the Mahoning Valley and graduated from Fitch High School in Austintown, after which she immediately entered the Navy.

Navy blood was in her family, she said, explaining why she made that decision. Her father and maternal grandfather, Aubrey Hemming, were Navy veterans.

The four-year stint also made her eligible for the GI Bill, which is helping pay her way through college in pursuit of a degree in business management.

For complete story, see Monday’s Vindicator or www.vindy.com.