Local teen spends free time volunteering with veterans
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
Fifteen-year-old Jessica Ullberg, of East Troy, has been volunteering at Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee for about two years, since the moment she was old enough to do so.
“My mom works there and I heard about it when I was too young to volunteer, but I wanted to so bad. I was like 12 at the time, so as soon as I turned 14 I said, ‘Mom, sign me up right now,’” Ullberg said.
From then on, she has spent as much time as possible working with the veterans at the center.
“I went every day during the summer and worked seven hours a day,” she said.
The sophomore at East Troy High School spent nearly 300 hours volunteering at the center in 2015 alone.
“I worked in the Adult Day Health Center and we do a variety of things,” she said. “I run errands for the guys, do pharmacy runs and pick up the patient’s medicine, pick up calendars for the vets, cook with the guys, exercise and take the patients to their appointments within the center.”
One of the things she really enjoys doing with the vets is when the music group at the center meets.
“We have this music group, which I really enjoy,” she said. I’ll sing with the guys and dance. Some of the guys really love to polka, so I’ll polka with them. They taught me how and they really love it.”’
She also loves to just spend time with the vets, talking and playing games.
“We have a morning group, we give them coffee and snack, if diet allows for it, and we socialize during that time and a lot of the vets love to play cards, so when I have free time, I’ll play cards with the vets,” she said.
Her love of her “guys” as she calls them, and her desire to do even more, prompted her to raise $550 for the Vet’s Club over the summer.
“I made flyers and hung them up all over the subdivision I live in and a week or two later I went around and collect money the people donated,” she said.
She also sought the help of the high school choir for a special Veterans Day project this year.
“I asked the choir if we could do a DVD for the guys, and the choir director Miss (Aimee) Swanson said she thought it would be the most amazing idea,” Ullberg said. “We filmed it over the next day or two, and Miss Swanson put it on a DVD and I gave it to my mom, who gave it to her boss, who gave it to the Adult Day Health Center.
“I got so many comments when I went into the Christmas party from a bunch of people who work there and the vets. One comment really touched my heart, it was from one of the veterans who said ‘We may have served the country, and that doesn’t matter, but now you’re serving me and that’s what matters, and I just burst into tears.”
She went on to say that in her mind, his service and the service of all the others does matter and that’s why she devotes her time to them.
She was asked to speak at the center’s Christmas party this year and took that time to tell the vets how much they were appreciated.
Ullberg will be working at the center over the holiday break at school, “every day except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.”
When she isn’t volunteering at the VA, Ullberg is a member of the high school choir, band, and a member of the Key Club, Multicultural Club and on the cheer/dance team.
