Fishburne Cadets Find Way to Give Back to Service Members

Waynesboro, VA – It did not take Fishburne Military School Cadet Kyle Churchwell (Herndon, VA) long to find a way to help the United Service Organizations (USO) AND our troops all at the same time. Churchwell, assisted by Cadet Benjamin Weaver (Stuarts Draft, VA), delivered needed toiletry items to the USO Lounge at Washington Dulles International Airport on a recent Saturday. Churchwell, a sophomore in his first full year at Fishburne, headed up the effort, which involved many members of the school’s Cadet Corps. Churchwell said he came up with the idea as a way to “give back” to members of the military.

Cadet Churchwell collected and sorted gifts of small toiletry items and packaged them for use by service members heading to deployments or returning from assignments. The items, donated by his aunt, Mrs. Lisa Lombardozzi of Herndon, VA, included shaving cream, hand sanitizer, disposable razors, and lip moisturizer. He then encouraged his fellow cadets at Fishburne to add one more item to the packages: hand-written notes expressing gratitude for the soldiers’ sacrifice.

Churchwell ended up filling 200 bags with supplies, each one including a hand-written note from a Fishburne cadet. He and 8th-grade Cadet Weaver then gave up their weekend to deliver the bags to the USO Lounge at Washington Dulles International Airport. As service men and women pass through Dulles they have an opportunity to take one of the bags with them or to use it while they are there.

According to the Dulles USO Center Superintendent Andrea Tassan, shaving cream is always in short supply and many of the servicemen want to shave after a long flight overseas. “This was a well-thought-out donation,” noted Tassan. “What the boys brought was perfect.” She also observed that their time at the USO Lounge gave the cadets a chance to speak with soldiers directly.

After delivering the packages, Cadet Churchwell challenged other military schools to donate to a USO Center or lounge at an airport. “I’d like to see other schools outdo Fishburne’s 200 donations,” he said.

Fishburne Military School Superintendent COL Gary R. Morrison (VA) expressed pride in the effort put forward by Fishburne cadets to thank the troops and support the work of the USO. “Freedom is not free, and these boys get that,” he said.

The USO is dedicated to supporting service members and their loved ones. For more information about the USO, including how to donate, go to this link: https://www.uso.org/.

Fishburne Military School is the oldest and smallest of all military schools for boys in Virginia. Its college-prep curriculum is built upon the structure of an Army JROTC program. FMS is designated as a JROTC Honor Unit with Distinction and may nominate qualified candidates to the United States Service Academics. Fishburne hosts one of only four Summer JROTC programs in the nation, accredited by US Army Cadet Command.