Project D.R.E.W. pairs local veterans and songwriters for a journey of music and healing

Overcoming the trauma of war and returning to civilian life can be a struggle for military veterans. For Avon Lake resident Marilyn Zeidner, that struggle hit close to home in 2017 when U.S. Army veteran Drew Ferguson, a childhood friend of Zeidner’s daughter, died by suicide after returning from his deployment. Ferguson loved music and was also an avid painter and poet. Zeidner founded Project D.R.E.W. in his honor to help veterans use the healing power of music to tell the stories of their military service. Project D.R.E.W., short for Delivering Restorative Energy to our Warriors, pairs participating veterans with a musician over the course of a two-day weekend event. Veterans meet individually with their musical collaborator and tell their story. Musicians then have just one day to compose lyrics and music that tell the veteran’s story. Those songs are  performed the second day at a private concert held for the veteran and their loved ones. The songs are recorded at the concerts and later shared on Project D.R.E.W.’s website. Zeidner said the two-day workshop is often a release for veterans who have struggled to tell their stories of service. “A lot of them might feel they don’t want to talk to their spouse about all these things because it’s too heavy,” she said. “But talking to a stranger, they can really open up, and they do.” “One woman told me that it took her husband 40 years to tell her the story that he just immediately started talking about to the songwriter.” Another veteran, Zeidner added, played his song for a friend. “The friend started crying and said, ‘Why didn’t you ever tell me this?’ And he said, ‘I just couldn’t.’” ‘We realized that this was going to be something pretty special’ David Kos is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who served stateside in Virginia and North Carolina and overseas in Japan, from 1992 to 1996. He has been a council member for the City of Avon Lake for 20 years. Kos was paired with Cleveland musician Bethany Joy Svoboda, who turned his story into a song. Kos said he was unsure what to expect when he agreed to participate in the project but felt a sense of camaraderie walking into the room to meet the other participating veterans. “We saw each other as veterans from all different walks of life and all different branches of service and experiences, and we realized that this was going to be something pretty special,” Kos said. How a veteran’s story turns into a song Kos met with Svoboda for around two hours. “She took a few notes,” he said, “but she was listening. … It wasn’t an interview with the songwriter, at least in my experience. I don’t think the others were either. It was a conversation. [She] told my story in a way that I’ve never had anybody tell my story before.” Svoboda has been participating in Project D.R.E.W. since 2021 and has completed around 12 songs. “Performing a brand new song live in front of the person you wrote it for is always nerve-wracking,” she said, “but it is a very powerful experience.” “I do not come from a military family, so I knew very little about what that life was like when I started working for Project D.R.E.W.,” she added. “I’ve had a wonderful experience connecting with the veteran community and have learned so much from their stories.” Listen to David Kos’ story as told by Svoboda in the song “Cold Dress Blues.” Kos said he was impressed by the talent and musical skill of the participating songwriters. “I really think it honors Drew’s legacy,” Kos said of Project D.R.E.W. “The camaraderie of his fellow service members, and also combining that with his love of the arts, music and songwriting. I think this project really does bring out the emotions, sometimes the raw ones, and sometimes the very happy ones, the good times as well. But I think it unites us all as veterans, and it’s a beautiful project.” ‘We have the best sound in Cleveland’: Introducing Avon Lake’s Barnegie Hall Marilyn Zeidner and her husband, Lorain County Court Judge Jim Miraldi, are the owners and operators of The Barn, nicknamed “Barnegie Hall,” on their property in Avon Lake. Barnegie Hall regularly hosts concerts by musicians from Northeast Ohio and nationwide. Attendees are advised to bring their own drinks and snacks. Tickets for a show are usually around $20. “We pay the bands because supporting live music is part of our mission,” said Zeidner. “But then 100% of anything above that goes to our programs. We don’t personally take any money.” Miraldi began restoring the 129-year-old barn in 2009 with the help of local volunteers over the course of 14 months. Barnegie Hall now seats around 100 people. “Everything is brand new,” said Zeidner, “and a lot of it, the materials were either donated or very much discounted. So it was really a community project, and I think it has very good vibes inside because of that.” “We have the best sound in Cleveland,” she added. “They designed the whole room for that purpose.” Zeidner does not advertise for shows. She has an email list around 2,000-strong and has relied on those emails and word-of-mouth to fill seats. “A lot of people from Avon Lake say, ‘You know, I’ve lived here 20 years and I never knew this was here,’ which is kind of what we want,” she said. “But we also sell out at least half of our shows ahead of time, so the word has gotten around in the past 10 years.” For more information on Barnegie Hall and its concert schedule, visit Music on a Mission’s website .