EDWARDSVILLE — Moneer Damra left a lasting impact on his friends at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and they are raising funds to honor his memory through a pair of scholarships.
Damra, a 26-year-old nursing student and Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadet at SIUE, died Jan. 27 at Barnes Jewish Medical Center, in St. Louis, from injuries suffered in an off-campus shooting on Jan. 14.
“Do It Like Damra” gym wear is available online at https://treignteamsales.com/ by using code Damra.
There is a shipping fee of $5 regardless of the size of the order.
Money raised through clothing sales will help fund the two new scholarships being established in Damra’s honor. The goal is to raise $25,000 apiece for the Moneer Damra Memorial Nursing Scholarship and the SIUE Army ROTC Moneer Damra “Do It Like Damra” Scholarship.
“Throughout the spring semester, as everybody grieved, started to recover and started to come back to a sense of normalcy, we had a few competition events that we participated in,” said Damra’s friend Bryan Sims, a former SIUE Army ROTC cadet. “It kept Moneer’s name in our minds and hearts, and the more we did, the more we wanted to do.
“Some of the cadets decided they wanted something they could wear and have people ask them about and tell what ‘Do It Like Damra’ meant,” Sims explained. “Nobody knows what it means to do it like Damra unless you knew Moneer Damra. Keeping that thought alive is what started this whole gym wear campaign. We want to be able to tell his story because the more people we tell it to, the more people will be inspired by him.”
Damra was transported to a regional hospital with life-threatening injuries after the shooting occurred on the ramp from Illinois Route 157 to Interstate 270 in Glen Carbon.
Two suspects were charged in the shooting incident.
The life journey that Damra took to get to SIUE made his success in the ROTC and nursing school even more impressive.
Before turning his life around, Damra weighed 330 pounds and had an academic history as a below-average student.
“Funding a scholarship for a nursing student or a cadet, and giving them the opportunity that he fought so hard for, is kind of inspiring to everybody,” said Sims, who was recently commissioned to active duty and is preparing to go to South Korea.
“We felt it was the right thing to do and we got a couple designs for the gym wear and started selling T-shirts, and here we are. Later on, we’re going to develop a workout that was inspired by Moneer Damra and we could have a few additional items of gym wear to go with that. We might have a few competition events at some local gyms.”
“Do It Like Damra” gym wear is currently available online only, but Sims hopes the line will be sold at SIUE by this fall.
“I’m working on a pickup option at SIUE, but with most people being gone for the summer, it’s a little more difficult to organize on our part,” Sims said.
“When the fall semester starts, there will be some new cadets coming in who don’t have that stuff and they might like to have some Damra gear they can wear and be inspired by.”
Sims also is working on a way to recognize Damra at a St. Louis Cardinals game at Busch Stadium.
SIUE recently held an event on campus where Damra was posthumously awarded his nursing degree.
Later this year, the SIUE ROTC program hopes to do a wreath-laying ceremony with an honor guard in Damra’s memory.
Direct donations to the Moneer Damra Memorial Nursing Scholarship can be made at https://www.siueconnect.org/pages/support-pages/moneer-damra-scholarship .
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