‘Fraudulent’ vets charity plagiarized letter to Minnesota schoolkids

The United States Navy Veterans Association, a nonprofit veterans group, has come under fire in a half dozen states for allegedly using donations to fund Republican candidates and committees, including many in Minnesota. But the group has also plagiarized the work of American troops and school children in a supposed attempt to gain legitimacy.

The St. Petersburg Times reports that the group plagiarized a letter by Vivian N. Kamara, a U.S. sailor stationed in Iraq, written to students at Academy of Saints Peter and Paul in Loretto, Minn. The students at the school had written letters to troops overseas, and Kamara had written back to thank them.

USNVA, however, copied Kamara’s “thank you” to the children at the academy and used it on its website without permission. To make matters worse, USNVA changed the name of the school to “the Middlesex County Girl Scout troop.”

“That is such a bizarre thing to do,” Heidi Dondelinger, an administrator at the academy, told the St. Petersburg Times last month. “What’s so frustrating is that it was so important to our kids to do these letters for the soldiers.

“That some other group is getting the credit is so upsetting. And all to put money in someone’s pocket.”

The Times also reports that Girl Scout groups in both Middlesex County, Virginia, and Middlesex County, New Jersey Girl said they had nothing to do with the letter.

In fact, the troop number listed by USNVA doesn’t seem to exist.