Walter Reed Paint Night 5Artist Elizabeth Brunsman comes from a Navy family. Her dad is recently retired, while her husband and brother are currently serving. Meanwhile, Elizabeth owns and operates Paint Uncorked, a mobile painting class in the Annapolis area.

 

Her father Dan hosts monthly poker nights for his friends at his Maryland farm, and any funds raised from the games go to buy paint materials so Elizabeth can use her artistic talent to benefit a good cause.

 

Freedom Alliance was there when Elizabeth and her assistant Ryan, who is a cadet at the Naval Academy, came to the USO Warrior and Family Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Maryland. She volunteered her time and Dan’s poker friends enabled Freedom Alliance to host the evening.

 

Walter Reed Paint Night 1

 

The event commenced with a hefty meal of pasta, pizza, and desserts, and then our 25 guests, made up of wounded service members and their caregivers, sat down to paint.

 

Walter Reed Paint Night 3

 

Elizabeth promised that no artistic experience was required, and she supported and instructed all the painters so that participants finished surprised at how well their compositions turned out. But little did we know when we started that a real artist—quiet and unassuming—had shown up at our party.

 

Walter Reed Paint Night 4

Jeff and his wife, Brenda, have been living at Walter Reed while Jeff recovers from combat injuries. Before joining the armed services, he attended art school, but since coming home with injuries, he hadn’t done any painting … that was until the Freedom Alliance paint night.

 

Elizabeth, recognizing Jeff’s talent, coached him, and he left realizing for the first time how much he missed practicing his art. Brenda felt relieved and thankful, since she’d been encouraging her husband to paint for a long while, knowing it would help him process some of the difficult experiences he endured while deployed.

 

All our guests appreciated their time with Elizabeth, which was fun and relaxed. And each soldier or family member brought home their masterpiece painting, by which to remember the night!

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