Veterans Gallery coming to St. Clair Shores May 19-28

ST. CLAIR SHORES — The public and veterans can look forward to a series of events leading up to Memorial Day geared toward learning more about the veteran experience hosted by Project Brotherhood Resolve.

Joseph Gemayel, founder of Project Brotherhood Resolve, said the first Veterans Gallery Show was held three years ago.

“We started back in ’21, a bunch of veterans, we got together and put on a show for Memorial Day weekend,” Gemayel said. “We had a good turnout (and) decided to do it last year again and decided to do it this year again.”

Virginia Carstarphen, co-owner of Trader Todd’s Marina, said her husband purchased the marina, formerly known as Harbor Nine, in 2019 and she noticed that while they used it in the winter for storing boats, it wasn’t getting much use in the summer.

“It’s such a beautiful space that I, you know, with my art background, this would be a great space to host art shows and events of that nature,” Carstarphen said.

Carstarphen said Gemayel was an employee for her in Chicago at one of her restaurants near Wrigley Field. She said after his tours of duty in Iraq, he became really interested in helping other veterans. She said she posted about using the space at Trader Todd’s Marina on social media to see if anyone was interested and that Gemayel contacted her.

“He immediately contacted me and said I have this idea to put together a veterans show,” Carstarphen said. “And it really resonated with me. My father was a veteran of the Air Force (and) worked for the Veterans Administration his entire career.”

There are a couple different events this year, which is different from previous years. The reason behind that, Gemayel said, was to gain more exposure.

“When you pitch an art gallery to people, most people may not show up because they’re not interested in just seeing art,” Gemayel said. “So, to kind of gain exposure, we decided to throw in different events in there to get people out here.”

The veteran art gallery is not limited to a specific subject or medium, Gemayel said.

“We don’t want to alienate any artists that want to display their(s) because not all of them are going to be thinking about the same thing,” Gemayel said. “That’s what makes this gallery unique. It displays, like I said, different artists and their different styles of work, their different genres.”

Gemayel said some of the veterans use things such as art as a form of therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It’s not just going to the VA and popping pills, it’s different methods of therapy,” Gemayel said.  “And some veterans, especially ones that are not, don’t think of them being artists, or don’t like doing art, that might be the therapy that they need to move on with life and get better.”

The comedians at the comedy night are veterans local to Michigan, Gemayel said, and some of them use comedy as a form of PTSD therapy as well. One of the veterans is a double amputee, losing both legs overseas, and uses comedy as therapy.

These are not veterans-only events, Gemayel said. They are open to the public so they can see what goes on in the veteran community.

Some of the events require registration, and it can be found by going to their Facebook page, clicking on events and following the link listed. The Military Formal and the close out event are not ticketed, but donations are appreciated.

The Gallery Opener on May 19 includes the showing of the private documentary “Saving 22.” The documentary is about veteran suicide and the struggles veterans go through every day dealing with suicidal thoughts.

“Twenty-two veterans die at their own hand every day in America,” the “Saving 22” website indicates. “Current statistics are 27.5 per day. The incidence of PTSD, depression and anxiety is at an all-time high.”

Gemayel said the target audience for this documentary is health care professionals, especially those who work with veterans. The idea is to give them better insight about how to help their clients when they come in, Gemayel said.

“We see a lot of things with the VA where the psychologists rotate so they’re not there long-term,” Gemayel said. “Or a lot of them are not in the military or don’t have family in the military so they don’t have that experience. So, the treatment that is being treated is more of a civilian-based treatment than a military-based treatment.”

He went on to say that there is PTSD in civilian patients, but it’s different than the PTSD combat veterans experience.

“You have to tackle that (a) different way because not all people deal with their traumas the same way and not all of them respond to the same treatment the same way, either,” Gemayel said.

Gemayel said Project Brotherhood Resolve is always looking for donors, sponsors and other help in their mission to help veterans in life. He said to contact them if anyone knows of any veterans that could use their support.

He can be reached at (773) 456-4716.

Trader Todd’s Marina is located at 24030 E. Jefferson Avenue.