Nov. 11, 2021
By Sam Buisman – Covenant House Alaska Staff Writer
In honor of Veterans Day, Covenant House Alaska extends the most gracious of thanks to our country’s veterans and active-duty servicemembers.
We recognize that our staff, volunteers and Alaska is privileged to include many veterans, and we thank all of them for their service. Their selfless devotion to the protection and improvement of our communities models the value of service to which Covenant House Alaska aspires.
Many of the veterans involved in our mission, like our Director of Information Technology Patrick Murray, apply their insights on service from the military to their work here.
“Service is doing something that’s not about you,” said Murray, who spent eight years in the US Army. “It’s about doing something for the person to the left and the person to the right.”
So today, and every day, Covenant House Alaska offers its sincerest respect and deepest gratitude to our veterans.
Recognizing our veteran staff
Our staff is blessed with the talents of multiple veterans whose combined time in the military exceeds 80 years.
We would like to thank Air Force veteran Nicole Stuemke, Marine Corps veterans Michael Schmidt and Curtis Young, and Army veteran Patrick Murray for their service, along with the many other veterans on our staff who wished to remain anonymous.
Your contributions to Covenant House Alaska and the wellbeing of our country are indispensable, and you inspire the rest of us to answer our mission’s own call of duty with vigor and tenacity.
Veteran volunteers
Covenant House Alaska is fortunate to not only have so many veterans on our staff but in our cohort of volunteers as well.
Our volunteers include at least six veterans, along with two active-duty military personnel and five members of military families. These numbers also most likely underestimate the servicemembers who volunteer at Covenant House Alaska, as we only recently began collecting this data.
For many of these volunteers, like Air Force veteran Melissa Kitko, their military service is a profound influence on their approach to community service.
“The military is a gathering of brothers and sisters from different backgrounds reaching for a common goal,” said Kitko, who served from 1993 to 2006. “The mission is critical, but priority is also on the well-being of your wingman or battle buddy. Serving the community provides a similar feeling of mission-ready camaraderie.”
It fills us with incredible pride that so many of our community’s veterans and military personnel choose to spend their time and energy furthering our mission, and we couldn’t be more grateful. We strive to continue our work in a way you deem worthy of your support.
Thank you for your service!
Once more, to all of the veterans intertwined with Covenant House Alaska’s mission, we thank you for your incredible sacrifice for our country and community.
Our volunteers are essential in our mission of ending the experience of youth homelessness. If you are interested in volunteering at Covenant House Alaska, please click here for more information.
