(left to right) Jebediah Williams, Jed Hefner, Josh Stewart, Lucas Finch, Emile Phaneuf, Peter Hilton

On 23 October 2009  the University of Arkansas honored the US Armed Forces community with an event called ‘Salute to Veterans’.  Roughly 300 spectators attended, and we were honored to have guest speaker Hunter Riley from the Pat Tillman Foundation. The image above depicts six of the twelve University of Arkansas student recipients of the Tillman Military Scholarship.

Military Past and Present on Campus looks forward to an ongoing relationship between our university and the Pat Tillman Foundation, and we would like to express our sincere thanks to both entities’ incredible ongoing support for the US Armed Forces community!

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If you are interested in membership in MPPOC (separate from the Facebook group), click here to go to the sign up form.

(left to right) Emile Phaneuf, Jeb Williams, Sam Roberts, Ovid Wang, and Hosa Rentsendorj proudly display MPPOC's award for Outstanding New RSO.

Military Past and Present On Campus was presented with two organizational awards at the Student Involvement and Leadership Awards banquet April 15 at the Arkansas Union. The Center for Leadership and Community Engagement sponsors the annual awards which are designed to recognize individual and organizational achievements in academics and community service. For the 2008-09 academic year, MPPOC was named Outstanding New Registered Student Organization and Outstanding Special Interest RSO.

MPPOC President Hosa Rentsendorj was recognized individually at the ceremony also. He received the Non-Traditional and Commuter Student Leadership Award for excellence in achievements. The award is presented annually to a non-traditional student who balances exceptional academic performance and service with a home life. As part of the award, Hill Place Properties contributed a cash award of $500 to Hosa.

Over the last year, Hosa and other MPPOC members were actively involved with the Chancellor’s Veterans’ Task Force from inception to final report. Their contributions of time, energy and ideas were part of a larger effort aimed at making the University of Arkansas a more “vet-friendly” campus. MPPOC members also assisted in “Ice Storm 2009″ clean-up efforts in February, and worked with the Fayetteville Veterans Administration to distribute donated school supplies to children of veterans in August 2008.

The organizational awards will be permanently displayed in MPPOC’s office, A649, in the Student Union. Thank you to all members of MPPOC who contributed towards these achievements and let’s keep up the good work!

(left to right) Khosbayar (Hosa) Rentsendorj, Emile Phaneuf, Brandon Hittson, Jeremy Johns

After an ice storm hit Northwest Arkansas in a way the community had never seen, many were left with electrical lines, trees of all sizes, and debris in their yards. Most of the Fayetteville area was without power for several days. This made travel very dangerous and in some cases impossible.

On February 7, 2009, MPPOC members volunteered their time to the community with the cleanup. One family was still without power nearly a week after most of Fayetteville had regained electricity and had a recent medical issue in the family which made it nearly impossible to make their large piece of property look normal again. MPPOC was happy to step up and make a positive difference. Shortly after, we received the following letter from the family:

The recent ice storm here in Northwest Arkansas put everyone in our area in some kind of tragedy or at least an inconvenience. I was in the hospital when the storm hit and was thankful that their generators worked well. When my husband and I drove home from the hospital on Thursday, January 29, we couldn’t believe what we saw in our yard. We couldn’t even drive close to the house and could see that our electric lines were down. We got out the candles, and our little gas burners on our range were helpful in keeping the temperature in the 50’s. We were very thankful that we had an invitation to spend a couple of nights with some friends who had power. My husband stayed busy during that time purchasing a generator and getting it hooked up, then started in on the enormous task of cleaning up the yard. We had several acres of devastation to clean up, and he worked tirelessly and by himself for three days dealing with our downed trees and with the branches and limbs that were everywhere. There was still a lot that needed help, particularly the limbs that were high up in the trees and hanging, ready to fall. We got a call from the young vets from Military Past and Present at the U of A asking if they could come out and help. Of course we said, “Yes”! I fixed a big dinner for them while they worked very hard along side my husband for around three hours. They did a tremendous job, and really seemed happy to help. We are very grateful to them, and my husband and I want to thank them again. We appreciate vets and think that this is a great organization!
Mrs. C, Fayetteville

Jeff Long, the University of Arkansas’ Athletic Director, decided to give the $100,000 winnings of the Pontiac Game Changing Performance to the UA’s Veteran’s Scholarship Program, should the UA win.

MPPOC was proactive throughout the duration of the competition by requesting from several departments on the UA campus to send messages on their listservs encouraging people in the area to vote, contacting news sources in the NW Arkansas area, and creating a Facebook group based around the competition. In just over a week MPPOC was able to recruit over 400 members to the group.

The winning school was announced on January 8, 2009 at the BCS National Championship Game and, unfortunately Texas Tech was announced the winner. But MPPOC would like to take this opportunity to thank the community for voting for the UA and for our cause! This meant a lot to veterans in the community, and it was quite exciting to see the support.

The most recent press release is available here:
http://dailyheadlines.uark.edu/14125.htm

Click here to read the press release.

MPPOC would like to take this opportunity to thank University Development, Veterans Upward Bound, the UA’s Veterans Task Force, Pat Walker Health Center, Athletic Department, Honors College, Chancellor Gearhart, and all others involved in making our financial need known and helping the funding become a reality.

If granted, the above sum would create the revenue needed to sustain a continuing $43,000 yearly for 12 scholarships.

The proposal has been made public information and can be viewed in both Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat formats at the links below:

• MPPOC Scholarship Proposal - .doc (MS Word)
• MPPOC Scholarship Proposal - .pdf (Adobe Acrobat)

The employees of the VA Medical Center (VAMC), Fayetteville, AR partners with the local University of Arkansas Registered Student Organization – Military Past and Present on Campus (MPPOC) to identify needs and distribute school supplies to Northwest Arkansas veterans and their families.

The Federal Women Program (FWP) committee, at the VAMC in Fayetteville, AR recently conducted a school supply drive titled “Send ‘em Packin” for veterans and their families.  The FWP School Supply Drive committee was led by Sue Crawford, Chairperson; Jelain Light, and Esther Wagner in Fayetteville; Mary Lee Sheldon in Mt. Vernon, MO; and Dana Vickery in Ft. Smith, AR.  Boxes with yellow school buses crafted on them were strategically placed around the VAMC and the employees of the center dropped off schools supplies from 1-31 July 2008.  The supplies included: backpacks; paper; pencils; folders; pens; glue; color markers; colored pencils; USB Thumb Drives; crayons; rulers; and much more.

During the first two weeks of August, MPPOC identified and distributed almost all of the supplies to Northwest Arkansas veterans and their families.  The other remaining items were disbursed into the community at common areas/places that veterans and their families frequent for them to be able to utilize at those locations.  The items were dropped off at daycare centers, churches, and community centers, etc.

The totals are in and what a success! Through the FWP and the employees of the VAMC (Fayetteville, Ft. Smith, and Mt. Vernon), MPPOC was able to distribute enough schools supplies to help a total of 21 veterans, with a combined service of 203 1/2 years, from all branches of service, and 47 veteran children.  The families were so appreciative and give many thanks to the FWP and the VAMC employees for their generous support.  The students and staff advisor for MPPOC want to thank the FWP, and the employees of the VA, for selecting us to participate in this program.  This program/project showed that the above parties are focused on placing the veteran “first” and are committed to quality care of the veterans’ of Northwest Arkansas and Southern Missouri.

Because each of our members, officers and advisor are all Armed Forces veterans, active duty, guard or reserve, we are particularly qualified to be the leader in this area. In fact, since the existence of the University of Arkansas in 1871, MPPOC is the only RSO on campus to have ever existed with particular focus on veteran/military issues as a whole. Our organization officially came into existence on March 31, 2008. In very little time we have accumulated roughly 70 members and have plans to expand drastically - eventually to establish MPPOC chapters on other campuses as well.

If you are a veteran or a US Armed Forces member we highly encourage you to join! Being an MPPOC member gives you an instant network, outstanding leadership opportunities, certain benefits through our sponsors, and a great way to make lasting friendships with like minded individuals.

If you would like to know how you can support MPPOC individually or through your company/organization, please see our generous support page to find out more information.