I met Pamala Heydt for the first time this week. It was a cold, rainy Tuesday morning at Kent Station. Considering what she had just been through, Heydt should have been angry. She should have been steamed.
The disabled veteran, who lost 40 percent of her vision during basic training in the Army and who now is unable to drive, had been waiting for a bus that morning, with her friend Will Zastawnik and boyfriend David Conlin.
She wanted to take the bus from the top of Kent Hill, to come talk to me about her hopes of collecting several thousand Christmas cards, to give to veterans in two area VA hospitals.
The bus apparently passed them by.
So without missing a beat, Heydt and her friends walked through the pouring rain all the way down to Kent Station. Heydt covered the distance in a dress and heels. Thankfully she and her friends had an umbrella.
My first glimpse of this effervescent young woman was her frantic waving to me, as her friends spotted me standing under an awning at the station, out of the downpour.
No complaints about how her feet hurt (surely they must have); or how cold she was. In fact, she talked about how much harder she had to work when she was in the Army, running long distances in her combat boots.
She was just happy to meet me that morning, thank you very much. And gushing about her plans to help what she hopes will be several thousand injured troops this year, observing the holidays away from their families.
With help from her friends, Heydt is putting everything she has behind a program she is calling Operation Christmas Love.
Heydt is hoping she can rally enough local support to be able to bring 5,000 Christmas cards to injured troops in at least two hospitals later this month: the Seattle VA and the American Lakes Hospital in Tacoma.
Heydt says she’s looking for all kinds of cards, happy, or serious – and especially the homemade kind from kids. The one thing they need to have in common, is that they all will be destined for veterans. Just a “thank you” would be a meaningful gesture to these men and women, she said, to whom acknowledgement can mean so much, especially during the lonely times of the holidays.
“Hopefully it’s a way to show veterans at the Lakes and Seattle that we still care,” she said.
Heydt seems to know a lot about caring.
“It’s Christmas time and it’s my way of giving back to soldiers what they’ve given to me,” she said.
She also knows a lot about being upbeat.
The Harpers Ferry, W.V., native, joined up at 37, after her firefighter brother lost friends in the World Trade Center during 9/11. Although her age was somewhat advanced, that didn’t slow her down much.
She was stationed at Fort Bliss, Tex., in the beginning of her first permanent gig in an air-defense artillery unit. It’s where she met her best friend, and now roommate-helper Zastawnik, who was stationed in a similar unit there.
But the wheels unfortunately came off for Heydt’s dream to serve her country overseas.
A head injury she received during combat training had actually done enough nerve damage to leave her permanently disabled.
“I got in August 2007 – it was January 2008 when it happened,” she said, of the combat exercise where another female soldier hit her in the head with a training weapon called a pugel stick. Heydt’s helmet happened to slide, and the stick made contact with her skull.
She didn’t realize the extent of her injuries until later, when she was climbing up to an antenna and suddenly started seeing double. She had to be helped down, and testing indicated the extent of the nerve damage.
She loved the Army – the guys in her unit called her “Mom” – and she loved going to the USO, “where we’d have a good ol’ time,” she said.
The loss of her eyesight as well as her future plans as a soldier, was difficult at first for Heydt.
But in time, she took the obstacle in stride, probably with the same sort of energy I saw her exude after that marathon walk in heels.
The girl just doesn’t give up.
In addition to collecting Christmas cards, Heydt is excitedly planning an upcoming horseback-riding session. She loves horses, and a friend of a friend happens to operate a therapy horse-riding outfit.
She’s also taking dance lessons, and is planning to try her hand at a beauty pageant later next year.
She describes herself as grateful and happy, in her new life living in Kent, where she is currently undergoing therapy for her condition, and making plans to train as a teacher.
“Somebody upstairs decided I needed to slow down and see what life’s all about,” Heydt said, with her characteristic big grin.
She loves Kent, and the friendliness of the Evergreen State in general.
“Washington state has opened up its arms to me.”
How you can help with Operation Christmas Love:
Send your holiday cards, signed for veterans, to Heydt at “Operation Christmas Love c/o of Pam Heydt, 25812 110th Ave. S.E., Apt. I-102, Kent, WA 98030.
You also can drop off your cards at the front desk of the Kent Reporter office, located at 19426 68th Ave. S. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Be sure to send or deliver your cards before Dec. 20, so that Heydt can deliver them before Christmas to the two hospitals.
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