thedrifter
12-12-05, 07:21 AM
Article published Dec 12, 2005
Christmas surprise
By David Royer/staff
droyer@newsleader.com
STAUNTON — It's 76 degrees in Baghdad today. There's not a snowflake in sight. And there's certainly no such thing as a silent night.
But there is a Christmas story that began here not too long ago, when one group of Marines led by a young corporal from Staunton enjoyed a taste of Christmas, thanks to the generosity of a group of strangers from a snow-covered town in Virginia.
A very well-read group of strangers.
As a senior quarterback, Jon Taylor led the Riverheads High School Gladiators to their first Group A, Division 1 state championship in 2000 to cap a 14-0 season.
Since August, he's led the 3rd Batallion, 6th Marines, on a tour across the cities and deserts of Iraq.
This Christmas will mark Taylor's first ever spent away from his family. He and his wife, Jennifer, have a baby on the way, due in February. Their first wedding anniversary was Sunday.
He's on the other side of the world, missing all of it.
"It's our third deployment, but this one's different," a stoic Jennifer Taylor said from her home in Danville, after introducing her husband to the new baby in her belly via Webcam.
But this story took a happier turn recently.
A while back, Taylor's mother, Cindy, stopped by the Staunton public library to check e-mails from her son. Staff members there took an interest in her son's story.
The library has a tradition — each year, they "adopt" someone by buying Christmas presents for them. When they heard about Cindy Taylor's son, and the Marines serving with him, the library went above and beyond their call of duty.
They adopted his entire unit.
Thirty library employees chipped in to mail boxes of candy, cards, Nerf balls, books (they are librarians, after all), toothbrushes, toothpaste and hand cleaner to 10 very grateful Marines. The boxes arrived in Iraq on Dec. 5.
"Everybody grabbed a hold of this project, probably like we haven't grabbed a hold of anything in quite a while," library assistant Steve Tabscott said.
Cindy Taylor, who checks her e-mail account at the library every day, was overjoyed at the unexpected shipment.
"I just cried," she said. "I thought it was wonderful."
So did Jon Taylor, who responded by e-mail last week from a base in the city of Al Qaim.
"You should have seen it," he wrote. "They had to bring an extra Hummer on the convoy because there were so many."
Comforts from home are few and far between in Iraq, he said.
"It's really nice to get packages from people who you don't even know. It shows us that the effort we put into our job is, in a way, appreciated."
Taylor likely will be monitoring insurgent hideouts and falling asleep to the sound of incoming rounds until his unit returns in April.
But this Christmas, as they deck their tents with bits and pieces of Christmas memories from back home, he and the Marines of his unit know they have 30 secret Santas in Staunton, even if they don't know their names.
Ellie
Christmas surprise
By David Royer/staff
droyer@newsleader.com
STAUNTON — It's 76 degrees in Baghdad today. There's not a snowflake in sight. And there's certainly no such thing as a silent night.
But there is a Christmas story that began here not too long ago, when one group of Marines led by a young corporal from Staunton enjoyed a taste of Christmas, thanks to the generosity of a group of strangers from a snow-covered town in Virginia.
A very well-read group of strangers.
As a senior quarterback, Jon Taylor led the Riverheads High School Gladiators to their first Group A, Division 1 state championship in 2000 to cap a 14-0 season.
Since August, he's led the 3rd Batallion, 6th Marines, on a tour across the cities and deserts of Iraq.
This Christmas will mark Taylor's first ever spent away from his family. He and his wife, Jennifer, have a baby on the way, due in February. Their first wedding anniversary was Sunday.
He's on the other side of the world, missing all of it.
"It's our third deployment, but this one's different," a stoic Jennifer Taylor said from her home in Danville, after introducing her husband to the new baby in her belly via Webcam.
But this story took a happier turn recently.
A while back, Taylor's mother, Cindy, stopped by the Staunton public library to check e-mails from her son. Staff members there took an interest in her son's story.
The library has a tradition — each year, they "adopt" someone by buying Christmas presents for them. When they heard about Cindy Taylor's son, and the Marines serving with him, the library went above and beyond their call of duty.
They adopted his entire unit.
Thirty library employees chipped in to mail boxes of candy, cards, Nerf balls, books (they are librarians, after all), toothbrushes, toothpaste and hand cleaner to 10 very grateful Marines. The boxes arrived in Iraq on Dec. 5.
"Everybody grabbed a hold of this project, probably like we haven't grabbed a hold of anything in quite a while," library assistant Steve Tabscott said.
Cindy Taylor, who checks her e-mail account at the library every day, was overjoyed at the unexpected shipment.
"I just cried," she said. "I thought it was wonderful."
So did Jon Taylor, who responded by e-mail last week from a base in the city of Al Qaim.
"You should have seen it," he wrote. "They had to bring an extra Hummer on the convoy because there were so many."
Comforts from home are few and far between in Iraq, he said.
"It's really nice to get packages from people who you don't even know. It shows us that the effort we put into our job is, in a way, appreciated."
Taylor likely will be monitoring insurgent hideouts and falling asleep to the sound of incoming rounds until his unit returns in April.
But this Christmas, as they deck their tents with bits and pieces of Christmas memories from back home, he and the Marines of his unit know they have 30 secret Santas in Staunton, even if they don't know their names.
Ellie