The Family of a 1st Battalion, Warrior Transition Brigade Soldier and resident donated a 15-foot entertainment center to the dayroom of the WTB's Doss Hall.
Spc. Jenna Beno stayed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington D.C., for more than two years and knew about the importance of dayrooms in military barracks, before she passed away in October 2012.
Bill Beno, her father, drove 9-hours from his hometown of Clarkston, Mich., on Friday to help deliver it. Eight businesses, led by Vogue Furniture in Royal Oak, Mich., and more than 30 individuals came together to donate all of the materials and labor for the entertainment center.
Spc. Beno talked frequently about the importance of the dayroom during her stay at the old Walter Reed building.
"She needed something to get away from the hospital atmosphere," Bill Beno said. "She loved to play poker. She did play pool. She said she wasn't very good at it - but I don't know."
Spc. Beno joined the Army in 2007, and started training to become a member of the Special Ops program before injuring her knee at Fort Bragg, N.C., Bill Beno said. After the injury, she was assigned to be a mechanic and deployed to Iraq in August 2009. However, after an unknown incident in Iraq, she was injured again and her vocal cords were paralyzed.
After staying at Walter Reed for two-and-a-half years, Spc. Beno passed away as a result of complications from her injuries at the age of 24.
The old Walter Reed building was closed in 2011 under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure law and Jenna Beno's company was relocated to Doss Hall. The Fort Belvoir WTB lodging complex was completed in 2011. The 239,000 square-foot WTB complex is located next to Fort Belvoir Community Hospital and can house a maximum of 288 Soldiers. The Beno Family also donated more than 200 of Jenna Beno's home movies to Doss Hall.
Jenna Beno had a saying "Live For What Matters," which is inscribed on the entertainment center. She was known to drive around town to feed dogs and cats with animal food that she kept in her car, Bill Beno said. She also liked to give people rides.
Vivian Dietrich, the executive director of non-profit Operation Homefront, said Spc. Beno was a very giving person. Her organization provides assistance to the Families of servicemembers and helped to coordinate the entertainment center donation.
"Jenna was always filled with a strong sense of humor," Dietrich said. "She was engaging, very actively involved in whatever organization was out in support of a program for the troops. I've seen her many times go to drive other Soldiers around."
Operation Homefront will support the entertainment center donation by providing a high-definition television, a poker table and other furnishings to the dayroom in Doss Hall. Dietrich hopes the dayroom provides wounded Soldiers with a place to sit comfortably and have some fun during their time of recovery.
Sandy Halmon, events coordinator for the WTB at the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., said that Jenna Beno was a sweet-spirited young woman, who was reserved at first but became more talkative when people got to know her. She was also very smart.
"She was a cute girl, a really nice girl," Halmon said. "She didn't bother anybody. She kind of stayed off to her herself a while."
Linda Rasnake, WTB Family Readiness Support assistant at the new Walter Reed building, watched as Lonnie Polk and Jerry Sweet of Vogue Furniture assembled the entertainment center in the dayroom Saturday. She remembers when Jenna Beno enjoyed the dayroom at the old Walter Reed building. Rasnake was impressed with the entertainment center.
"I never pictured it being like this," she said. "I am just in awe."
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