Vet's gift lives on for area kids

Life's worth of spare change traded in for Christmas joy

December 12, 2006

By MATT TUNSETH/Frontiersman

WASILLA - United State Marine and World War II veteran and Purple Heart recipient William C. &#8220Brodie” Broderdorp always kept his change. On Christmas Day, he'll give it all back.

Whether nickels, dimes, pennies or quarters - Broderdorp held onto his spare coins, and had accumulated nearly $1,500 worth of metal by the time he died in October.

Living out his last days in Wasilla, Brodie struggled to find something to spend all that coin on. Then the perfect idea came to him: Toys for Tots, a Marine Corps program that since 1947 has worked to ensure that needy children don't go without plenty of gifts during the Christmas season.

So Brodie asked his friend, Debbie Dishon, to help him out. As division president of the Alaska Veterans of Foreign Wars Women's Auxiliary, Dishon told Broderdorp that after he died, she'd honor his wish by making sure the coins would go to a good cause.

&#8220He was just so into Toys for Tots,” Dishon said Sunday.

Brodie died on Oct. 11, leaving a wife, three children and his faithful companion, a dog named Pretty Much.

&#8220I said to him, ‘I promise I'll roll up all that change for you,” she said.

Shortly afterward, Dishon went to work.

&#8220I rolled up $1,400 worth of spare change,” she said.

On Sunday, Dishon and members of the ladies auxiliary and junior auxiliary joined Marine Lance Corporal Greg Bell at Wal-Mart in Wasilla to go on a shopping spree. Along with $500 the group received from the store, the women and girls roamed up and down the aisles in search of gifts to donate to Valley children.

By the time they'd finished, Brodie's spare change had been turned into baskets full of new toys, electronics, games, stuffed animals and bicycles - each destined for some lucky boy or girl in the Mat-Su.

The VFW group worked with the Special Santa program to get the toys and gifts out to Valley youth.

And according to Special Santa workshop coordinator Wanda Nickoli, they'll all stay right here in the area.

&#8220Some lucky kid in the Valley will be riding those bicycles,” Nickoli said.

Nikelle Dishon, 13, is a member of the junior VFW auxiliary. She helped pick out the toys to be donated, and said she was touched by both Brodie's and Wal-Mart's generosity in providing for the shopping spree.

&#8220It's pretty cool,” she said. &#8220It shows people in the Valley really care.”

The toys will be wrapped by the Special Santa program and distributed throughout Mat-Su. And on Christmas Day, as little boys and girls throughout the Valley wake up to find plenty of presents under the tree, it's a good bet an old Marine will be looking down with a smile.

&#8220He was just a good guy,” Dishon said. &#8220This is what he wanted.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@ frontiersman.com.