BANGOR – The Penobscot Valley Industries program, or PVI, is a division of Amicus, which serves adults with disabilities in the Bangor area. As a private, nonprofit organization, our primary mission is to enhance the quality of life and independence of people with disabilities.

We seek to create a community where people can freely participate in all areas of community life regardless of their abilities. For the past 14 years we have received the highest level of national accreditation for the quality of our services.

One of the larger, annual events conducted at PVI is our Heritage Days celebration. The theme of this year’s three-day event was titled “What’s Trapped in Our Souls.”

By studying where we have come from – our history, our family and our early experiences – people can gain a better understanding of who they are today. The event asks program participants to look inside themselves and reach for the interests, strengths and emotions they possess but may not have fully explored or let free.

One group of participants, who saw themselves as risk-takers – or “overcomers” – explored ways to process anger and overcome grief. The group identified ways to promote positive self-image, to express trust, to cope with grief and to manage negative emotions.

When the group discussed fear, many people talked about fears related to the war in Iraq. In order to turn fear into something positive, they explored ways to help the American soldiers in Iraq.

The PVI computer group researched and found that they could adopt a soldier. Through a coincidental meeting with his mother, Claudia Barnett, the group discovered that we have our own local soldier with whom we could correspond.

This soldier represents the heart of the Heritage Days theme by being both a risk-taker and an overcomer. He is Army Spc. Jarrod Barnett.

The group sent Jarrod “packages of support” containing letters, artwork, yellow ribbons, bookmarks and pictures.

Jarrod loved getting these packages of support, and he reciprocated by sending pictures and letters about the people and the culture of Iraq. PVI program participants were impressed by Iraqi children, who have learned to live with danger and deprivation each day. They also must be risk-takers and overcomers. These Iraqi children gave us all a new outlook on the difficulties we may face in our own lives.

Jarrod, who was listed in The Weekly’s Military News last year, returned to the United States in March. He visited PVI recently to express his appreciation for the PVI packages of support he received in Iraq.

The PVI group held a “Welcome Home” ceremony for Jarrod, where he spoke about his experiences and answered their questions. Jarrod gave his own Red Cross gift packs to Iraqi children and other lonely soldiers who weren’t receiving mail. He was prompted to perform this act of kindness because he had received his own gift pack from the group at PVI.

Jarrod brought PVI a gift pack containing Iraqi stamps, coins, currency, patches from American and Iraqi uniforms and a copper eagle that Jarrod felt was the symbol of the “overcomer.”

Jarrod has left Bangor to return to duty in Fort Carson, Colo., where he has just been promoted to the rank of E4. Jarrod serves our country by operating a heavy equipment transport, or HET, vehicle. This monstrous vehicle has eight wheels on its tractor and 40 wheels on its trailer.

Jarrod may have to return to Iraq, but he won’t know for certain until next year. From all of us at PVI: Thanks, Jarrod!

Robert Ellis is program director of Penobscot Valley Industries, a division of Amicus.