Joint Operation Mariposa partners with Trout Creek School, U.S. Army
Joint Operation Mariposa’s Dave Williams and U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Bill Nicholson presented a painting to the third and fourth grade students and teachers Taylor Detienne and Jennifer Adair last Thursday. (Photo courtesy Dave Williams)
The latest painting of local artists Dave Williams’ and Plains High School junior Hailee Steinebach’s “Guardians of the Herd” series made the trip to the Trout Creek Elementary School last Thursday.
Sgt. First Class Bill Nicholson, who works in the U.S. Army’s recruiting unit in Missoula, joined them to the present the painting of a mule, the Army mascot, to Taylor Etienne’s third-grade class.
“The series has featured horses, but since the Army mascot is a mule, we painted a mule,” Williams said. “The original goal was to connect third-grade classes in each of the five elementary schools in Sanders County to the five branches of the military.”
The students will enjoy the painting in their school for the next week and write letters to the Missoula unit. Williams, a Navy veteran, will then transport his latest “work of love” and correspondence to Missoula where the Army unit will have it framed.
“While the painting is in Trout Creek, third grade teacher Taylor Etienne will talk to the kids about the Army and their history,” Williams said. “The unit has been working on ideas for the frame and it’ll be made out of infantry badges, stripes and other related items.”
Soldiers from the unit will then write letters back to the Trout Creek students and have a Zoom call with them.
Sgt. Nicholson, a 13-year Army veteran with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he really enjoyed being invited to the project.
“It’s a great way to put a local community in touch with the military community,” Nicholson said. “The kids were super excited and we also had the opportunity to speak to students in the seventh and eighth grades about values, the importance of being nice to one and another and service to their communities, so it went really well.”
Detienne shared how excited the students were during the visit.
“The kids were really excited and they were already shouting out names for the painting,” she said. “They asked a lot of questions, too.”
Detienne said she was proud to be part of the project because she has family members in the military. She said kindergarten students are drawing pictures of the soldiers.
“We have the painting on display in the cafeteria so everyone can enjoy it,” Detienne said.
Once a few names are chosen for the painting, a class vote will determine the final choice.
Williams further explained the rest of the project.
“When all five paintings are done, they’ll be donated to the Veterans Administration because they didn’t want the series to be broken up,” Williams said.
The Blue Horse painting was presented to the state Veterans Administration office in Helena.
A Gold Horse was petitioned by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and is destined for VFW headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, in honor of Gold Star families.
The Green Horse is scheduled for a cross country tour this summer where 3,000 veterans will work together in its transportation to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. Williams said four Native Americans are building a frame for it.