It was a beautiful day, Chamber of Commerce perfect, for the largest Veterans Day Parade in Florida. Downtown Jacksonville was flooded with thousands of onlookers gathered to honor those that have served our country. The children were excited and all seemed to have flags that they waved as those in the parade passed by.
There were over 3,500 participants in this year’s parade with 4 outstanding veterans chosen to be Grand Marshals. One of those 4 honored was Lt. Colonel Richard Willich, Retired USMC. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in 1964. Richard was awarded a Purple Heart and several Medals of Valor as a U.S. Marine Platoon Leader in Vietnam, and served proudly in the Marine Corps Reserves for the next 30 years, leading several special military operations before retiring after the Persian Gulf War at the rank of Lt. Colonel. He served as a board member for the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation from 1988 to 2002, and became Chairman of the Board for the Marine Corps Reserve Association in 2005.
A breakfast was held at the Times Union Center where the Grand Marshals received their Medals to wear during the parade. After breakfast they went to the Prime Osborn Center to get into their military jeep for the ride through downtown. Richard invited Kimberly Witter to be his guest on the ride. Kimberly is an employee at MDI, Holdings, Inc. where Richard is the Chairman and CEO. Kimberly’s husband, Michael, is in the Navy and was deployed when their son Kendal was born. Now 7 months old, Kendal and Michael wore matching “cami’s” and waved flags as “mom” rode by!
Lt. Colonel Willich said “It’s a great day for all American’s whether you are a veteran or not. It’s great to see all the kids enjoying the freedom of being out here and not worrying about whether someone is going to arrest them and throw them in jail because of what they think.”
Tuesday, October 26, 2010. Today was another great day for elementary school kids in St. Johns County. Richard Willich made a visit to one of their schools and that means a great deal to the recipients of these visits… as Mrs. Upchurch’s 4th grade class soon found out.
Richard met briefly with the principal at Ketterlinus Elementary School, Kathy Tucker and several teachers to share his thoughts on the importance of public education and the work the teachers are doing. When asked why he gives so much to the public school system Richard told them that he was a product of public schools and he feels it’s important for everyone to give back.
After the discussion with the teachers, Richard read to a class from his new children’s book “Danny & Goliath.” The book was written in collaboration with Joey Travolta and Screenwriter John Martin and features Richard’s real prize Angus bull. It addresses issues of accepting our differences and overcoming bullying.
But the reading of the book was only the beginning for these kids. When he had entertained the class with his rendition of a large bull’s Mooooo, and invited them all to visit Goliath at his farm in Picalata, Richard pulled a new iPod Touch from his shirt pocket and asked if anyone in the classroom knew what it was. A unanimous and enthusiastic “Yes – it’s an iTouch” came from the kids.
Richard then told them that he was going to give his iTouch to one lucky person and selected a young boy to come up….but he had to pass a test to get it. The test was daunting. He would have to arm wrestle Theo Wilder. Theo, an MDI employee in the IT department is 6’6 and weighs….well, almost as much as Goliath the bull! The young boy’s face dropped and he was ready to admit defeat but the cheers of encouragement from his classmates empowered him to beat Theo and receive the iTouch.
The classroom erupted in cheers when they found out that the only FAIR thing to do was to give everyone in the class an iTouch.
The iPod Touch’s that the class received are part of TIP (Touch-screen Interactive Program); a pilot program devised by Richard and MDI staff to introduce technology into public schools that will improve reading and math levels.
Three St. Johns County elementary schools are participating in TIP: Crookshank, Ketterlinus and Timberlin Creek. MDI staff members Ashleigh Costanza, Carolyn Comacho and Maura Checchio, are heading up efforts as project managers in the three respective schools. The three project managers– all in their early 20’s – are coordinating the installation of the technology and documenting the process and evaluation of the program’s effectiveness.
This program provides each child with their own iPod Touch, the class with one iPad for each 3 students, and the teacher receives a laptop. Also included is a cart-docking station that syncs, recharges and downloads applications to the iPods. In addition, Richard is providing each teacher with a $500 per month stipend for supplementary educational applications that will be installed on the iPods and iPads.
The team hopes the TIP program will become a useful model for using technology to increase performance in reading and math.
