Sean McCollough, an ambitious junior at Benilde-St. Margaret High School had already created a Veterans Assistance and Interaction Project with plans to collect water bottles and sell them to buy goods for homeless Veterans; however, he quickly ran into obstacles that were slowing him down. That's when he decided to focus his attention on the needs of those living in Veterans Homes.

In December, 2015 Sean reached out to the Minnesota Veterans Home - Minneapolis and shared with staff his goal of helping as many Veterans as possible during his junior and senior years.

In January, Sean and a couple of friends assisted Residents with bingo. While there he asked what items Residents might have on their wish list that would make life more enjoyable for them and add that extra touch of home feel. After that, he reached out to a few clubs at his school and asked for their help to do a fundraiser to purchase those "extras" for Residents. Sean worked with the speech team to create a little friendly competition amongst members. It was a huge success resulting in the collection of many items that enhance the quality of life the Minneapolis Home's Residents enjoy.
Sean and his support team delivered the items on February 11th before assisting with another evening of Bingo. But his plan didn't stop there. Sean has also been working with Sandy to help raise funds for a "Circle of Flags" at the Homes main entrance by creating a "Go Fund Me" account at https://www.gofundme.com/jmdshqrg .

With the US flag already in place, the project will add the State of MN, POW-MIA, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Airforce, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine Corps flags. Sean's hope is to fund at least one of the six branch of service flags, the pole and installation.

For more information, contact Sandy Larson at sandy.larson@state.mn.us .