Patriot Fund in need of donors

Kirsten Searer

Wednesday, July 20, 2005 | 10:37 a.m.

To donate

Tax-free donations can be made to the Nevada Patriot Fund, Account No. 6655843909, Wells Fargo Bank, 5340 Kietzke Lane, Reno, NV 89508

Gov. Kenny Guinn is asking Nevadans to give to a fund for fallen soldiers that is close to running dry.

Seventeen Nevadans have died so far in the war on terrorism, and recent deaths has almost drained the Patriot Fund, which was established in 2003 to give at least $6,000 to families of each Nevadan lost in the war.

Local businesses established the fund in 2003 with about $135,000 in donations, hoping the money would last through the war.

"Unfortunately at that time we never anticipated as many deaths as we had, or the war lasting as long as it has," said lobbyist and longtime political activist Joe Brown.

June alone saw the deaths of four Nevada soldiers, leaving the Patriot Fund with almost no money.

"We were able to keep up before but it's gotten away from us a little bit," said Greg Bortolin, spokesman for Gov. Kenny Guinn.

The fund gives widows or widowers with children $12,000. Families of soldiers with no dependents receive $6,000.

The money isn't much compared to the $100,000 death benefit that families of all fallen soldiers receive from the federal government. But Patricia Marek saw it as a tribute to her son, and a sign that Nevadans appreciated Matthew Commons' sacrifice.

"If Matt had to die, I want there to be honor attached to it," she said this week from her home in Littleton, Colo. "One of the things I've tried to do is talk to schools and children and stuff like that so he's a real human hero, not a Batman or Robin. He's a real guy."

The 21-year-old Army Ranger was the youngest of seven killed in a March, 2002, battle in Afghanistan. The men were killed trying to rescue a fellow soldier.

Commons spent 11 years of his childhood in Boulder City and graduated from Boulder City High School. He enrolled in the military after dropping out of UNR, but had told his mother he wanted to return to school so he could teach history.

"I just can't believe that he's a hero," Marek said. "It's hard to imagine that about my baby, who is just an ordinary kid who used to flex his muscles in front of a mirror."

Marek gave the money from the Patriot Fund to her younger son, Aaron, who was attending college at the time and was rocked by the loss of his brother.

"Somehow Aaron, I feel, is the forgotten one," Marek said. "Whatever I do, I try to make sure that he knows he's not forgotten."

Few states have a private fund for soldiers, Brown said. The idea was born at the 2003 state Legislature when two Nevadans were reported dead on the same day.

"It's just a matter of showing our troops from Nevada that we're behind them, that Nevada supports our own," Brown said. "I think that's very important, that Nevadans look out for each other."

Brown believed that Nevada needed a fund for soldiers after reading newspaper accounts of the two fallen soldiers. He spread the word through the Legislature, and within an hour had raised about $80,000.

Everyday people from police and firefighters to schoolchildren have raised money for the fund over time, but it needs major infusions, Brown said.

He was encouraged by at least $10,000 in donations made since Guinn made an appeal last week.

Families typically receive the money within a few weeks, said Elaine Alexander, a volunteer who helps contact family members for the Patriot Fund.

"We don't want to do a whole lot of hoopla," she said. "We just send them a nice letter expressing regret and sympathy for their sacrifice and we let it go."

Some families tell Alexander they plan to use the money to pay for travel expenses involved in the funeral, or even to create a memorial at the soldier's high school.

Marek said it's an important gesture to families experiencing grief.

"I just think, 'Wow, people look up to him,"' she said. "What an honor, what an honor."