Following his own traumatic experiences with mold in his privatized military home, Luke Bright, the son of a service member and military housing advocate Derek Bright, has written a letter urging Congress to allocate funding to research the long-term health effects of mold exposure. 

**Please HELP US spread the word and SHARE Luke’s mission**

The Belvoir Housing Advocacy Group recognizes that there are many environmental challenges within military housing. Thousands of children living in privatized military housing, like Luke, have suffered from systemic mold issues plaguing their homes with no clear path forward on treatment or acknowledgement that long term exposure can have a lifelong lasting impact. 

PLEASE sign this petition in support of Luke for all of our military children and in support of our military families! 

#IAmLuke #WeAreLuke #IStandWithLuke #NDAA #HASC #SASC 

If you stand with Luke and would like to share your photos or experience while residing in military housing, email us at help@belvoirhousingadvocacy.org

Senator Tammy Duckworth
524 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Duckworth,

My name is Luke Bright. I am 11 years old, and a Scout working on my Citizenship in the Nation merit badge. As part of the merit badge, I’ve been learning about the constitution and the role of the legislative branch. I am writing to you asking for your help and leadership about an issue that has affected me and thousands of other children. I am asking for your help and leadership to fund research into the long term affects of mold exposure to children in privatized family housing. In talking with a scientist who studies mold and microbiology he says there is currently no long-term studies taking place. I am asking you to sponsor legislation to fund such a study by appropriating 4.5 million dollars over the course of four years.

My Dad is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force and we just moved to Illinois last summer where he is assigned to Scott Air Force Base, not far from where he grew up. I have been a “military brat” all my live and have lived in privatized family housing on military bases for almost 10 years. We have lived on an Army post, a Navy base, and two Air Force bases. My family was displaced from our home on Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana twice between 2016 and 2018 because of mold. We were displaced from our home on Fort Belvoir five times over three years, and our story was on the front page of the Air Force Times on November 4, 2019. Our longest displacement was because of mold in our home on Fort Belvoir. I lived in a hotel for over 87 days, and I slept on a couch in a hotel during that time. There were dozens of kids in our hotel because of mold in their homes, and the school made a bus stop at the hotel because there were so many kids living in the hotel. After returning to our house, we were displaced again seven months later and after a month were forced to change homes. During that displacement my dad also discovered mold in the townhouse that housing placed us into until we could move into a new home. Our new home we were moved into also had mold and other problems like a gas leak. During my time in our moldy homes I suffered from headaches, sore throat, nausea, frequent nose bleeds, and generally feeling weak. My Mom and Dad took me to the doctors on Fort Belvoir, but they told my dad that he couldn’t prove the mold was making me sick, but since we moved to Illinois all of those problems have gone away. I don’t think that is a coincidence.

The Army has a database of families who reported moldy conditions and medical problems, but no one has ever contacted us requesting further information. I want to serve in the military when I am older but am afraid any health problems from the mold could prevent me from serving. I am asking for your help to fund the research for long term effects of mold exposure to children in privatized family housing by having the Army and Air Force give grants to civilian experts to conduct this study.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this request.

Luke Bright
Scouts BSA Troop 1043
Highland, IL