TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Lessons In Business, Benevolence

ADVERTISEMENT

By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 15, 2007

RIVERVIEW - Invited to pose by a New York advertising executive, a little girl in a yellow shirt flashes a broad smile as she clutches a bottle of Flintstone's chewable vitamins in a picture that's hard to resist.

But it's not your typical marketing ploy.

Tom Deierlein, plucked from his comfortable career and lifestyle and sent back to active duty in Iraq about two years ago, was struck by the poverty and squalor he found far from the high-rise office suites of New York. He wanted to help. The girl's picture was intended to illustrate a desperate need for vitamins.

"People were offering to send me things," Deierlein recalled during a presentation last week at Riverview High School. "I said, 'Don't send me things. Send things to the kids.'"

A sniper's bullet shattered his pelvis, nearly took his life, and could have shattered his belief in humanity and the need to reach out to others.

Instead, he's back in the suites of New York, more determined than ever to help children in a place he has no desire to see ever again.

Deierlein, chief operating officer of an advertising research company, Dynamic Logic, was shot in September 2006. He spent about half of his eight-month hospitalization for treatment and rehabilitation at James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa.

He returned to the area for a conference in Tampa and agreed to address students in a "senior survival" class taught by Judith Alarcon-Gaspar at Riverview High. The teacher said her sister is a physician in New York who has worked with Deierlein to ship vitamins to Iraqi youngsters.

The class, conducted through the school district's Family and Consumer Sciences program, is intended to help seniors prepare for life after high school, including budgeting, applying to colleges, choosing majors and pursuing a career.

"Now it's time to zero in and get serious about what you want to do," Alarcon-Gaspar said before introducing Deierlein to about 90 students gathered in the school's media center.

Deierlein offered a presentation that included his path to military goals, career and community service.

He said he grew up in White Plains, N.Y., one of nine children. At age 13, he decided on a military career and got accepted to West Point, with his sights set on joining an elite group of soldiers called the Airborne Rangers. He also was active in community service, mostly Meals on Wheels.

He said he almost got kicked out of the academy during his freshman year, and later failed tests to get into the Airborne Rangers twice. He persevered, however, and achieved his goal.

"I've made my share of mistakes," he said. "There will be setbacks. ... You have to learn from those mistakes and move forward in a positive direction."

While in the service, Deierlein was stationed in Berlin, Germany, and was among troops who helped tear down the Berlin Wall. He also took classes and received a master's degree.

He left the service in 1993 and went through a series of jobs that eventually led to advertising. He worked long hours, he said, but managed to earn another master's degree in business.

Deierlein said he was 38 and had just gotten back from a business trip to Puerto Rico in late 2005 when he found out the Army wanted him back.

"There was a Western Union telegram in my mailbox saying you are going to Iraq," he said.

In Iraq, Deierlein worked in the civil affairs unit, trying to "protect folks who are innocent and caught in the middle.

"There are people just like you find here, saying 'I just want to go school. I just want to hang out with my friends.' ... In the middle of all that is a combat zone. It's kind of funky."

Based in a part of Baghdad called Sadr City, he saw barefoot children dressed in rags, many living in cardboard boxes or tin-top shanties. Adults were desperate to get drinking water for their families, Deierlein said, and children were malnourished and had stunted growth.

Deierlein asked friends and associates to send things such as beef sticks, clothing, toys, pencils and paper that children could use. Because of Muslim customs, usually children and men would show up for distributions, he said.

But when word got out that vitamins were available, the women risked cultural disapproval to line up and get them.

"Women all over the world, they still want to nurture and care for their kids," Deierlein said.

After Deierlein was shot, some of his friends in advertising started a nonprofit organization called TD Foundation to benefit impoverished Iraqi children. They have raised about $120,000, Deierlein said. The organization ships food, clothing and vitamins to Iraq and helps transport children with severe medical needs to the United States for treatment.

He advised the group against choosing a career solely on its money-making potential.

"Find something you're passionate about ... and the rest of your success will follow," he said.

For information about TD Foundation, visit www.td foundation.org.

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT