thedrifter
12-26-06, 07:28 AM
Acting in kind
Gifts range from phone cards to coats of paint. Small gestures? Maybe. But to America's troops, the community efforts mean so much more.
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 24, 2006
It was a simple request.
An iPod.
What better way to stave off boredom and make the hours pass more quickly?
For Raymond Hubbard, an iPod meant the hours and weeks and months of physical therapy and rehabilitation would be a bit more bearable, a gift from strangers who would never meet the 27-year-old Darien man who had already given so much.
An iPod, a new furnace, a plane ticket, a fresh coat of paint for a barn, a quilt, phone cards - Wisconsin military members have seen many such acts of kindness since the war in Iraq started almost four years ago. Sometimes the donors are strangers, sometimes the recipients know who is being kind to them.
Hubbard lost his leg and most of his blood when a rocket landed near the guard shack he was inside in Baghdad on the Fourth of July. The blast shattered his right elbow. Shrapnel sliced the carotid artery in his neck. He suffered a stroke.
When Wisconsin Army National Guard Gen. Kerry Denson visited Hubbard at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Denson asked if he needed anything. Hubbard said an iPod would be nice.
One of the sleek-looking music players loaded with more than 100 songs was sent to Hubbard along with an Xbox 360, which occupational therapists said would help his injured right hand recover. The gear came from the Southeast Wisconsin Family Support Group fund set up through the American Legion with money donated by the Rotary Club in Hartland and others who want to help military members and their families.
"I didn't think I was really deserving of anything, but it was very nice that I got it," said Hubbard, who returned home to his wife and two sons, 9 and 8, this month.
He listens to 3 Doors Down, Tantric, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Johnny Lang on his iPod while he's doing his cardio workouts and physical therapy. On the Xbox he plays "Madden 2007" and "Lego Star Wars" - gifts from his nephew.
Hubbard, who worked at an Elkhorn manufacturing plant, was mobilized in 2005 with the Wisconsin National Guard 120th Field Artillery. He was working in detainee operations on July 4 when he heard a whistling sound.
"And then you could feel the air basically implode, and then there was the blast. I probably lost consciousness for 15, 20 seconds. When I woke up I knew I was injured. I kept my eyes closed because I didn't want to see the extent of the injuries," said Hubbard, who ended up receiving 16 units of blood.
He didn't know he had lost his lower left leg until a week after he regained consciousness.
"Nobody told me that it happened. I looked down and noticed there wasn't a shape underneath the blanket," Hubbard recalled. "I just looked up at my wife and asked her, 'Did I lose my leg?' Actually I really couldn't speak because of my stroke. But she saw the question in my eyes."
Once his wife told him the heart-breaking news, Hubbard's thoughts quickly turned to what he needed to do to walk again. He's been fitted with a prosthetic leg and has pretty good balance. And with his iPod to listen to, Hubbard often stretches his cardio workouts from the suggested 20 minutes to 60.
"I've been overwhelmed with the support the community has given," Hubbard said. "When you do sign up for the military, you do know your life might be on the line. I offered my life for my country, but all they needed was a leg."
Linking volunteers, families
Acts of kindness for members of the military happen every day across the state. On the front lines are military family readiness group leaders such as Bill Hasz who act as conduits for families and people who want to help.
Hasz recalled an e-mail from the wife of a soldier deployed overseas; at the end of her message she mentioned that her lawn mower was broken and she was worried her landlord would get mad because the grass hadn't been mowed for weeks. Hasz called the Catholic diocese in Green Bay, which put him in touch with a youth work group.
The next day, the woman told him the Good Samaritans had mowed her lawn, fixed her mower, trimmed trees and bought flowers when they noticed the flower beds were bare.
"We often get a lot of calls during the holidays from people wanting to help, but sometimes we don't have any families that have asked for help. So we tell them can we keep their information and call when we do get a family that's in need," Hasz said.
In some cases, the Wisconsin National Guard learns of a need but is barred from helping financially. So the Guard works through the family readiness group to connect donations and good deeds with the people who need them, said Denson, who retired as deputy adjutant general in November.
Giving barn a new life
Barry Grimsled's barn was looking weary. The 60-something barn, give or take a decade, was home to 1,400 laying hens and probably sported its original paint job, though no one is sure.
While Grimsled, 37, was in Kuwait for about a year with the Wisconsin National Guard 2nd Battalion, 128th Infantry, his neighbor and friend Amy Gabrielson kept two of her steers at his rural Westby farm. She also took care of some of Grimsled's cats, planted flowers, picked strawberries and kept an eye on things at his vacant home.
One day she got an idea.
"I was just feeding the steers when I thought, 'We should paint this barn.' "
She sent out e-mails in April and got 14 responses. Then others forwarded the e-mail and word spread. On July 15, 52 people showed up, grabbed brushes and painted Grimsled's 35-by-75 barn in six hours.
It took 25 containers of red and white paint, which cost $13 a piece. Everything else - water, Gatorade, brushes, four industrial paint sprayers and lifts - was donated. The painting party consisted of neighbors, co-workers, family members and friends of friends who turned out on a sunny, 92-degree day to help a soldier who was coming home for his 15-day leave in a couple of weeks.
"I saw this beautiful barn that really needed some loving. A coat of paint definitely did it," said Gabrielson, whose husband, Dale, is also in the Guard but hasn't been deployed overseas.
It was supposed to be a secret, but Grimsled found out about a month before. When he returned home for a visit in August, his barn was the first thing he saw.
"As I was coming down the road, I know where I can and can't see my place because the road dips. I could see it and it looked great, but it didn't set in until I hit the last stretch of road down to my house," said Grimsled, 37, who works full time as a mechanic for the National Guard and raises organic chickens part time. "It's a totally different barn with the white bottom and red top. It's amazing how good a barn can look with a new paint job."
He insisted on paying for the paint, but Grimsled said he couldn't repay the kindness shown to him by so many people.
Grimsled felt "disbelief that this many people would take time out of their weekend to do something like that for me. How do you ever thank them for doing something like that?"
Only a phone call away
Aleana Strook looked forward to her boyfriend's calls from Iraq and Kuwait. Before Michael Wendling shipped out with the Wisconsin National Guard 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry, in August 2005 he was excited to receive donated phone cards so he could call his family and girlfriend.
"And I was excited because it meant I was getting a phone call," she said.
She met Wendling before her sophomore year at Mayville High School and instantly liked the Brewers fan and golf fanatic. They dated for four years. When he called from overseas, they talked mostly about how the Brewers were playing, what she was doing back home and what he was doing over there. They spoke the day before he was killed in September 2005 when a bomb exploded next to his Humvee.
Devastated, Strook searched for a way to bring Wendling's family and friends together, and she thought golf would be perfect. Wendling golfed on Mayville High School's team and spent practically every summer vacation day golfing with his buddies. Strook didn't play much, "but he said I was a darn good caddy."
She organized a golf tournament at the course in Mayville. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee junior figured it would be fairly small and hoped to raise perhaps $2,000. But once word got out, the event got much bigger than Strook ever imagined. All 144 slots were snapped up quickly, and a dozen additional four-person teams were turned away.
The July 22 tournament raised $13,000.
After donating $5,000 to a Mayville High School scholarship fund, Strook spent the rest of the money on 500 phone cards. They were sent to the Wisconsin National Guard unit that replaced her boyfriend's unit.
When the phone cards arrived in Kuwait, members of the 1st Battalion, 121st Field Artillery learned who was behind the generous gift. When the phone cards were handed out to 121st soldiers, they also received a note from Strook.
"Our soldiers greatly appreciate the efforts. Making it easier to call home for the holidays is a peace of mind that goes a long way to assisting our soldiers reach out to those they love," Lt. Col. Scott Rice of the 21st said in an e-mail.
Strook, who is studying to become a schoolteacher, is already planning another golf outing in her boyfriend's memory for next summer.
"He would approve of where the money was going. I knew how much it meant to me to get a phone call," she said.
A gift of warmth
Kris Lindsay missed her son when he was deployed to Iraq, so the Mequon quilter thought a good way to keep her mind off the dangers her son was facing was to stay busy. That meant keeping her fingers moving with a needle and thread.
What started out as a simple gesture of warmth and kindness has expanded into Operation Snuggles, an effort by legions of quilters in Wisconsin to make blankets for the families of Wisconsin military members deployed overseas. Quilts are also given to Gold Star families who have lost a loved one.
"When my son left for Iraq two years ago this past July, I needed something to do. I asked my quilting friends because I knew my daughter-in-law and grandsons really missed my son, so we thought 'Why don't we make quilts for them?' "
Lindsay has made 35 quilts for military families and has organized donations of hundreds more by Wisconsin quilters through Operation Snuggles.
Heather Leffin found out about Operation Snuggles in her sewing class at Grafton High School and told Lindsay about her 21-year-old brother, Sonny Leffin, a Cedarburg High School graduate and Army specialist stationed in Afghanistan since January. When Heather, 16, brought home a quilt made by Lindsay, her mother, Bonnie Leffin, was overwhelmed.
"I almost broke down in tears. I try not to get real emotional around my daughter. It's hard. But I thought it was so special what Kris did," Bonnie Leffin said.
Patched together with fabric in shades of blue, white, burgundy and gold, the quilt of red, white and blue stitching features a small tag with Sonny Leffin's name on it. It's displayed on the couch in Bonnie Leffin's home.
"Kris said we should think of Sonny giving us a hug every time we use it," Bonnie Leffin said.
Quilters such as Lindsay have invested hundreds of hours and dollars in the quilts destined for Wisconsin military families. Each puts a note on the back of the quilt including the quilter's name and hometown.
Sometimes Lindsay and other quilters receive thank-you notes from recipients. But mostly she doesn't know who ends up with her handiwork.
"We think about the children as we make the quilts. What these people write us, it's so tearful," said Lindsay, who is looking for more quilters to volunteer for Operation Snuggles. "We say our happiness, our sorrows are stitched into the quilts."
Ellie
Gifts range from phone cards to coats of paint. Small gestures? Maybe. But to America's troops, the community efforts mean so much more.
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 24, 2006
It was a simple request.
An iPod.
What better way to stave off boredom and make the hours pass more quickly?
For Raymond Hubbard, an iPod meant the hours and weeks and months of physical therapy and rehabilitation would be a bit more bearable, a gift from strangers who would never meet the 27-year-old Darien man who had already given so much.
An iPod, a new furnace, a plane ticket, a fresh coat of paint for a barn, a quilt, phone cards - Wisconsin military members have seen many such acts of kindness since the war in Iraq started almost four years ago. Sometimes the donors are strangers, sometimes the recipients know who is being kind to them.
Hubbard lost his leg and most of his blood when a rocket landed near the guard shack he was inside in Baghdad on the Fourth of July. The blast shattered his right elbow. Shrapnel sliced the carotid artery in his neck. He suffered a stroke.
When Wisconsin Army National Guard Gen. Kerry Denson visited Hubbard at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Denson asked if he needed anything. Hubbard said an iPod would be nice.
One of the sleek-looking music players loaded with more than 100 songs was sent to Hubbard along with an Xbox 360, which occupational therapists said would help his injured right hand recover. The gear came from the Southeast Wisconsin Family Support Group fund set up through the American Legion with money donated by the Rotary Club in Hartland and others who want to help military members and their families.
"I didn't think I was really deserving of anything, but it was very nice that I got it," said Hubbard, who returned home to his wife and two sons, 9 and 8, this month.
He listens to 3 Doors Down, Tantric, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Johnny Lang on his iPod while he's doing his cardio workouts and physical therapy. On the Xbox he plays "Madden 2007" and "Lego Star Wars" - gifts from his nephew.
Hubbard, who worked at an Elkhorn manufacturing plant, was mobilized in 2005 with the Wisconsin National Guard 120th Field Artillery. He was working in detainee operations on July 4 when he heard a whistling sound.
"And then you could feel the air basically implode, and then there was the blast. I probably lost consciousness for 15, 20 seconds. When I woke up I knew I was injured. I kept my eyes closed because I didn't want to see the extent of the injuries," said Hubbard, who ended up receiving 16 units of blood.
He didn't know he had lost his lower left leg until a week after he regained consciousness.
"Nobody told me that it happened. I looked down and noticed there wasn't a shape underneath the blanket," Hubbard recalled. "I just looked up at my wife and asked her, 'Did I lose my leg?' Actually I really couldn't speak because of my stroke. But she saw the question in my eyes."
Once his wife told him the heart-breaking news, Hubbard's thoughts quickly turned to what he needed to do to walk again. He's been fitted with a prosthetic leg and has pretty good balance. And with his iPod to listen to, Hubbard often stretches his cardio workouts from the suggested 20 minutes to 60.
"I've been overwhelmed with the support the community has given," Hubbard said. "When you do sign up for the military, you do know your life might be on the line. I offered my life for my country, but all they needed was a leg."
Linking volunteers, families
Acts of kindness for members of the military happen every day across the state. On the front lines are military family readiness group leaders such as Bill Hasz who act as conduits for families and people who want to help.
Hasz recalled an e-mail from the wife of a soldier deployed overseas; at the end of her message she mentioned that her lawn mower was broken and she was worried her landlord would get mad because the grass hadn't been mowed for weeks. Hasz called the Catholic diocese in Green Bay, which put him in touch with a youth work group.
The next day, the woman told him the Good Samaritans had mowed her lawn, fixed her mower, trimmed trees and bought flowers when they noticed the flower beds were bare.
"We often get a lot of calls during the holidays from people wanting to help, but sometimes we don't have any families that have asked for help. So we tell them can we keep their information and call when we do get a family that's in need," Hasz said.
In some cases, the Wisconsin National Guard learns of a need but is barred from helping financially. So the Guard works through the family readiness group to connect donations and good deeds with the people who need them, said Denson, who retired as deputy adjutant general in November.
Giving barn a new life
Barry Grimsled's barn was looking weary. The 60-something barn, give or take a decade, was home to 1,400 laying hens and probably sported its original paint job, though no one is sure.
While Grimsled, 37, was in Kuwait for about a year with the Wisconsin National Guard 2nd Battalion, 128th Infantry, his neighbor and friend Amy Gabrielson kept two of her steers at his rural Westby farm. She also took care of some of Grimsled's cats, planted flowers, picked strawberries and kept an eye on things at his vacant home.
One day she got an idea.
"I was just feeding the steers when I thought, 'We should paint this barn.' "
She sent out e-mails in April and got 14 responses. Then others forwarded the e-mail and word spread. On July 15, 52 people showed up, grabbed brushes and painted Grimsled's 35-by-75 barn in six hours.
It took 25 containers of red and white paint, which cost $13 a piece. Everything else - water, Gatorade, brushes, four industrial paint sprayers and lifts - was donated. The painting party consisted of neighbors, co-workers, family members and friends of friends who turned out on a sunny, 92-degree day to help a soldier who was coming home for his 15-day leave in a couple of weeks.
"I saw this beautiful barn that really needed some loving. A coat of paint definitely did it," said Gabrielson, whose husband, Dale, is also in the Guard but hasn't been deployed overseas.
It was supposed to be a secret, but Grimsled found out about a month before. When he returned home for a visit in August, his barn was the first thing he saw.
"As I was coming down the road, I know where I can and can't see my place because the road dips. I could see it and it looked great, but it didn't set in until I hit the last stretch of road down to my house," said Grimsled, 37, who works full time as a mechanic for the National Guard and raises organic chickens part time. "It's a totally different barn with the white bottom and red top. It's amazing how good a barn can look with a new paint job."
He insisted on paying for the paint, but Grimsled said he couldn't repay the kindness shown to him by so many people.
Grimsled felt "disbelief that this many people would take time out of their weekend to do something like that for me. How do you ever thank them for doing something like that?"
Only a phone call away
Aleana Strook looked forward to her boyfriend's calls from Iraq and Kuwait. Before Michael Wendling shipped out with the Wisconsin National Guard 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry, in August 2005 he was excited to receive donated phone cards so he could call his family and girlfriend.
"And I was excited because it meant I was getting a phone call," she said.
She met Wendling before her sophomore year at Mayville High School and instantly liked the Brewers fan and golf fanatic. They dated for four years. When he called from overseas, they talked mostly about how the Brewers were playing, what she was doing back home and what he was doing over there. They spoke the day before he was killed in September 2005 when a bomb exploded next to his Humvee.
Devastated, Strook searched for a way to bring Wendling's family and friends together, and she thought golf would be perfect. Wendling golfed on Mayville High School's team and spent practically every summer vacation day golfing with his buddies. Strook didn't play much, "but he said I was a darn good caddy."
She organized a golf tournament at the course in Mayville. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee junior figured it would be fairly small and hoped to raise perhaps $2,000. But once word got out, the event got much bigger than Strook ever imagined. All 144 slots were snapped up quickly, and a dozen additional four-person teams were turned away.
The July 22 tournament raised $13,000.
After donating $5,000 to a Mayville High School scholarship fund, Strook spent the rest of the money on 500 phone cards. They were sent to the Wisconsin National Guard unit that replaced her boyfriend's unit.
When the phone cards arrived in Kuwait, members of the 1st Battalion, 121st Field Artillery learned who was behind the generous gift. When the phone cards were handed out to 121st soldiers, they also received a note from Strook.
"Our soldiers greatly appreciate the efforts. Making it easier to call home for the holidays is a peace of mind that goes a long way to assisting our soldiers reach out to those they love," Lt. Col. Scott Rice of the 21st said in an e-mail.
Strook, who is studying to become a schoolteacher, is already planning another golf outing in her boyfriend's memory for next summer.
"He would approve of where the money was going. I knew how much it meant to me to get a phone call," she said.
A gift of warmth
Kris Lindsay missed her son when he was deployed to Iraq, so the Mequon quilter thought a good way to keep her mind off the dangers her son was facing was to stay busy. That meant keeping her fingers moving with a needle and thread.
What started out as a simple gesture of warmth and kindness has expanded into Operation Snuggles, an effort by legions of quilters in Wisconsin to make blankets for the families of Wisconsin military members deployed overseas. Quilts are also given to Gold Star families who have lost a loved one.
"When my son left for Iraq two years ago this past July, I needed something to do. I asked my quilting friends because I knew my daughter-in-law and grandsons really missed my son, so we thought 'Why don't we make quilts for them?' "
Lindsay has made 35 quilts for military families and has organized donations of hundreds more by Wisconsin quilters through Operation Snuggles.
Heather Leffin found out about Operation Snuggles in her sewing class at Grafton High School and told Lindsay about her 21-year-old brother, Sonny Leffin, a Cedarburg High School graduate and Army specialist stationed in Afghanistan since January. When Heather, 16, brought home a quilt made by Lindsay, her mother, Bonnie Leffin, was overwhelmed.
"I almost broke down in tears. I try not to get real emotional around my daughter. It's hard. But I thought it was so special what Kris did," Bonnie Leffin said.
Patched together with fabric in shades of blue, white, burgundy and gold, the quilt of red, white and blue stitching features a small tag with Sonny Leffin's name on it. It's displayed on the couch in Bonnie Leffin's home.
"Kris said we should think of Sonny giving us a hug every time we use it," Bonnie Leffin said.
Quilters such as Lindsay have invested hundreds of hours and dollars in the quilts destined for Wisconsin military families. Each puts a note on the back of the quilt including the quilter's name and hometown.
Sometimes Lindsay and other quilters receive thank-you notes from recipients. But mostly she doesn't know who ends up with her handiwork.
"We think about the children as we make the quilts. What these people write us, it's so tearful," said Lindsay, who is looking for more quilters to volunteer for Operation Snuggles. "We say our happiness, our sorrows are stitched into the quilts."
Ellie