Tom and Renee Treece of Luna Pier have raised about $32,000 toward a goal of at least $45,000 to help pay for construction of the Pho Phong school in Duc Pho, a village in the coastal province of Quang Ngai.

Proceeds from the sale of "The Ghost Closet: Return to Vietnam on the Wings of DOVE," Mr. Treece's journal of his 2001 return visit to the Southeast Asian country, combined with Mr. Treece's concerts, have generated much of the money needed to help build the school.

Initially, the couple intended to raise about $6,000 - enough to build a nursery school. But as donations and book sales continued and the amount kept rising, they set their goal higher.

"We thought it would be really great to build the school where I served as a soldier," said Mr. Treece, who is Luna Pier's administrator and also writes a weekly column for The Evening News.

Quang Ngai, where Mr. Treece served with the Army in the 1960s, recently was hit by a typhoon and it caused widespread devastation. "The only school they have there is damaged badly, so they're in need of a new school anyway," Mr. Treece said. "Once we got to the $30,000 level, we figured if we could raise a little more, we could build a real state-of-the-art school."

The Pho Phong school is designed to accommodate 800 students and will cost $50,000. The local government has committed to paying `$5,000 of the cost. The Treeces' fundraising efforts, under the auspices of the Development of Vietnam Endeavors (DOVE) Fund, will pay the rest.

The DOVE Fund has raised more than $1 million since it began in January, 2000, and has built 33 schools, three medical clinics and dug hundreds of clean-water wells in some of Vietnam's poorest areas. Representatives of the non-profit DOVE Fund visit Vietnam each year to dedicate new facilities, check on previously built schools and clinics and scout out areas for potential new projects.

One-hundred percent of all donations go directly to projects, Mr. Treece said. DOVE members pay administrative and travel costs themselves. The Treeces expect to revisit Vietnam in March in connection with development of the new school.

They just returned from a week-long fundraising trip in Minnesota, where he performed, and he and his wife sold books and spread the story of the DOVE Fund.

"Every weekend, I'm out there pushing the book and I'm singing at churches and restaurants and wherever anybody will have me," he said. "We're out there telling our story and the people are supporting it."

His book now is in its second printing and though Mr. Treece said he isn't reaping financial benefits from the effort, it has been a balm on the invisible wounds left by war.

"It's been a real healing for me," he said. "I've struggled with it all my life. I struggled with the ghosts of war as most veterans do. And then when I was asked to join this group, I just jumped at the opportunity and I had no idea it would be such a cleansing opportunity for me personally."

"I think the good Lord's blessed it and this is a great opportunity to reach beyond geographic and ethnic and religious and economic and national borders to make a difference in the lives of somebody else on the planet who's a lot less fortunate than we are," he said.

                                                                             (Source: monroenews.com)