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Vouching for veterans

The Summerville Journal-Scene - 2/20/2018

Every year Girl Scout Troop 590 holds a dinner and program to honor veterans.

Also every year, Nikole Rivers, now 17, has wanted to do something more than a dinner to bring recognition to those who have served in the armed forces.

Rivers, a St. George resident and senior at Woodland High, wanted to do something that would help the still somewhat segregated town of St. George. She said history is being lost and she wanted to do something to show her peers what these veterans went through to fight for freedom. “I wanted my generation to know that freedom is not free,” she said. “Someone has to lay down their life for me and you.”

In December 2016, Rivers started working on what is now a documentary entitled “Our Veterans: FOREVER Live Our Dorchester County Heroes.” Rivers went through an extensive effort to assemble the video and interviewed 29 local veterans – men and women, from different branches and different wars – for a four-hour documentary.

The documentary is now on display at the Dorchester County Archives and History Center and a copy was sent to the South Carolina State Museum.

For her efforts, Rivers has since been named a 2018 South Carolina Distinguished Finalist by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young children and teens for community service activities.

Rivers said she entered her documentary in 2017, after reading the criteria and feeling pretty confident that her video captured the spirit of community. Rivers said being a finalist was exciting because she entered the previous year but didn’t place. In addition, Rivers will receive the Gold Award on May 6 at the Girl Scouts of Eastern South Carolina’s Girl Recognition Ceremony.

A press release from Girl Scouts of Eastern South Carolina states Rivers has previously held 9/11 remembrance ceremonies for fallen heroes and and this was the foundation for her Silver Award Project “Remembering the Victims and Paying Tribute to the First Responders, 9/11/2001: We Will Never Forget.”

Rivers is a part of service unit 660 for Troop 590. She has been a Girl Scout for eight years. She said Girl Scouts strives for girls to have courage, confidence and character.

Rivers said she is the first girl from St. George to receive the Gold Award. “Coming from a rural town and knowing that I achieved something of that status, it is a wonderful feeling,” she said.

Rivers said she hopes anyone who watches the documentary will gain more knowledge, awareness and appreciation for veterans – especially for her generation. Rivers said she encourages others to do something as simple as thanking a veteran when they meet one. “It doesn’t have to be anything major,” she said.

The Dorchester County Archives and History Center is also working on a veterans database to add information about veterans who were either born in Dorchester County or live in Dorchester County.

Rivers works as a cashier at Piggly Wiggly and said she sees veterans whom she interviewed when they come into the store, and she has built relationships with many of them.

She recalled a particular veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and opened up to Rivers about his experience; she said the veteran still thanks her whenever he sees her.

Another suffered from suicidal thoughts and now has a suicide hotline app for family members with loved ones in the military. Rivers said he was very brave to talk about the things he saw in war. “It’s a talk I won’t forget, that’s for sure,” she said.

Rivers is a part of Family Career and Community Leaders of America – also known as FCCLA – and Interact Club, which is a service learning club. She is also part of BETA Club and is student body present for Woodland High.

She recently got accepted to Columbia College and is considering studying speech language pathology and audiology.

She also enjoys playing volleyball, reading and doing community service.

She said she spent a lot of time with her grandmother as a younger child and described her a strong missionary; Rivers said she just took after her grandmother when it comes to giving back.

“It was just placed in me at a very, very young age,” she said.