Ball State Alumnus Stops to Help WWII Veteran

While driving with his family on Saturday, September 12, 2015, Ball State alumnus Jesse Jett saw a elderly veteran walking on 10th Street in Indianapolis. Jesse said to his wife Amber “I’m picking him up.” Willie Dickens, 93, was a Navy mechanic in WWII and then drove a Wayne Township school bus for 21 years. He was walking a mile, with his walker, uphill, to Walmart for some peanuts. (Jesse said to his wife “That’s a man who loves some peanuts!”) The Jett family drove him to get the peanuts. When he got back in the car, he opened them to share with the Jett boys. It was an honor for the Jett family to meet him, and Brother Jesse gave Mr. Dickens his phone number and told him to call if he ever needed peanuts, or anything at all. Brother Jett wasn’t wearing his letters last Saturday but he demonstrated how service and leadership are lifelong pursuits of ATΩs held in your heart.