Muskego Brings Christmas to the Vets

It's never easy to know how an appeal for help will be received, especially during a tough economy and with so many other worthy causes needing attention as well.

However, the request for donations for Jeff 'Doc' Dentice's efforts to bring Christmas with the Vets to fruition on Saturday, Dec. 15 was met with generous and heart-warming gifts of food, clothing and gifts.

Just a few weeks ago, Muskego Patch met with Dentice, who usually spends much of his time organizing the yearly dinner and entertainment show at the Zablocki Veterans Administration Medical Center and logging 1,100 miles on his vehicle in collecting donations. Thinking it would just be easier to have one place for people to drop off donations, we quickly got an offer from Katie Orvis and Shelley Cullen at Edward Jones in Muskego to be a drop-off site, and Veolia Environmental provided two oversized boxes to hold the donations.

Then we held our breath, not sure if the Facebook and Twitter posts we issued would be enough. However, our readers and Orvis' clients responded warmly.

On Friday, Dec. 14, we picked up the items, which filled both boxes in Orvis' spare office. A tip of the hat here too for Jim Semrad, who donated a large box of apples and oranges and made the gift cards Patch donated stretch even further.

We drove over to Dentice's home, which was easy to spot because his garage was loaded with items.

"Believe it or not, this really isn't a lot," Dentice laughed. "But it's awesome to see what's coming in."

This year's event had two shows to accommodate the crowd. To view video and for more information, visit the Christmas with the Vets website.