Bus trip supports Iraqi children

As trolley riders waited in the heat at the Depot last week, an unusual form of transportation greeted them.

Brothers Jerry and Dennis Bowers rolled up in their tricked-out 1949 Ford school bus, which has been lowered 3½ feet and shortened seven feet. They drive it just about everywhere to promote Operation Iraqi Children, including a stop in Culpeper July 13 to appear on Channel 16.

Helping soldiers help children” is their motto.

Operation Iraqi Children provides school supplies to countries where American soldiers are stationed. To ensure its supplies aren’t put on the black market, soldiers directly distribute them to the children. Such an approach also aims to improve relations between troops and civilians.

“It says a lot about our country,” Dennis Bowers said. “If we can do something to help our troops and the kids, we’ll do it.”

Actor Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan in “Forrest Gump”) and Laura Hillenbrand, author of “Seabiscuit,” co-founded the organization when they saw how the lack of basic school supplies was greatly hindering the education of students in Iraq.

“The future of Iraq lies in the education of its children,” Hillenbrand said in the OIC brochure. “We owe it to them — and to the hundreds of American men and women who gave their lives to bring them freedom — to give these children the basic tools of learning.”

Jerry and Dennis Bowers can personally relate because of their service in the Air Force; they became involved with the program as a result.

“We served with our hearts and can’t help but find a way to give back,” said Dennis Bowers, who described his transformed bus as a platform of promotion.

“At first, we built it to have fun,” Jerry Bowers said. “We like to build things that are different, and I have never heard of someone lowering a bus. But then it took a life of its own.”

Once they reach a community and a school kit drive is held, supplies are shipped to the People to People International Headquarters in Kansas City, Mo.

According to the OIC Web site, the organization has shipped more than 200,000 school supply kits since its creation in 2004.

The Bowers brothers were also in Culpeper during the July Fourth car show and will be in town again Oct. 10 for the county’s air show.

You can help

Community groups are encouraged to get involved in donating school supply kits for children in countries where American soldiers are stationed. Operation Iraqi Children is part of People to People International, and 100 percent of donations go to children in need. Find out how to organize a school kit drive at shortcuthigh.com or ptpi.org and click on the link, or go to operationiraqichildren.org.