The problem with the 2 wars we’re fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan isn’t that they are the longest in American history. It’s that they have cost the vast majority of us so little– and a few of us so terribly much. It’s this inequity that breaks Kaziah Hancock’s heart and has every day since Spring 2003, when she heard about the first death of a soldier from her home state of Utah.

James Kiehl, U.S. Army

And every day since, she has picked up her brushes and furiously thrown some paint at her grief.

Bert E. Hoyer, U.S. Army

The result is Project Compassion — 800 portraits of the fallen by Kaziah herself, and 2500 in total from a group of artists she’s gathered to give something precious back to every American family whose loved one has given the last full measure of devotion. With every portrait she sends out, she’s bringing an American soldier killed in Iraq and Afghanistan back home again.

Living alone on her high desert farm with 15 mama goats and 30 kids, Kaziah is salty, eccentric and irreverent — tough as a sailor and tender as rain. Her own father died in World War I, one week before she was born.  “I know what it’s like to grow up without a daddy,” she says. “I don’t give a rat’s rear about politics, or how much time it takes to get this done. I’m focused,  and I love every minute I get to spend with these guys.”

Demarkus D. Brown, United States Marine Corps

My $100 today goes to Project Compassion to buy 3 frames that will hold the portraits of the fallen. It’s my privilege to support Kaziah’s work and I hope that every father, mother, sister and brother who will never have to receive Kaziah’s terrible, beautiful gift of remembrance might choose to do the same. Click here to donate.