I am Bob’s youngest daughter, Kelly. He usually referred to me as his “mini-me” because I am a lot like him in looks and personality. I was always running around working on events with him. When he played Santa Claus, I was his elf. When he was participating in or organizing an event, I was his sounding board–and his photographer. When he wrote his letters for the UAW Local 160 newsletter, I was his copy editor. We were each other’s support system and in many ways, he guided me to live out his dreams as well as my own. Often times, our dreams and goals were the same–especially when it came to our active military and veterans.
When the war in Iraq started after the events of September 11, 2001, the idea of a possible draft sent my father into action mode. He was drafted and sent to Vietnam right after high school. He would still get so angry when he talked about how he and his fellow Vietnam veterans were treated by the American public. Even though he disagreed with the war, he vowed to stand by the military and do whatever he could to let them know that their sacrifices were appreciated.
We came up with the idea for Operation Easter Basket, sending care packages to our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then we followed it up with Operation ThanksForGiving. Before we knew it, we had people coming to us for help and I cannot even recall how many times he wound up on the front page of the Macomb Daily. He became the chairperson for the UAW Local 160 Veterans Committee, joined the Region One Veterans Council and became a trustee for the Great Lakes National Cemetery. He dedicated his life to helping our active military and our veterans. He was a force to be reckoned with, never once caring that he himself was a disabled veteran dealing with Agent Orange disease and a bad leg. I wound up moving to the other side of the country but I still talked to him every day–sometimes several times a day. I would knit scarves that he would pass out to homeless veterans at the Stand Downs. I even nominated him for the General Motors Patriot Award and secretly flew home so I could be the one to present the award to him.
When he passed away suddenly on June 3rd, 2015, my life stopped. I did not know how to move forward without him. After the funeral, the UAW Local 160 held a hot-dog fundraiser for a local veterans facility in his memory. At that event, my sister and I looked around, realizing that Dad would have loved that his friends and family were coming together to help the veterans. That was when we knew how we could move forward.
On November 17, 2015, the Bob Brinker Memorial Veterans Foundation was officially established as a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to keeping my father’s legacy alive. Everyone who works for our foundation is family, not a single paid employee. We do this because if he were still here with us, this is what he would be doing.
Personally, this foundation gives me a reason to get up every day and put one foot in front of the other because I know I am doing this for my Dad. I am beyond grateful to everyone who helps us keep my father’s legacy alive. And as long as I am still breathing, I will live by his mantra–“No veteran left behind or forgotten.”
~Kelly Brinker
