thedrifter
11-20-08, 07:13 AM
Baking goods for service members
November 19, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Mother of wounded Marine war veteran bakes for U.S. armed forces
Every month, Donna Padilla of North Bend loads her minivan with dozens upon dozens of cookies, brownies, pies and other treats for injured servicemen and women at Madigan Army Medical Center.
She and her group of about 35 — dubbed “Baker’s Angels” — cook a storm of sweets whenever they have time, and they are inviting Valley bakers to join their fold.
Padilla began baking after her 23-year-old son, Jason Rosman, was wounded in Iraq. When she flew to the Naval Medical Center in San Diego to see him, she learned about support groups for families.
While at an Operation Homefront Washington meeting, Pedilla answered the call for baked goods and formed Baker’s Angels. Now she and other angels bake treats from chocolate-chip banana bread to peanut butter snicker cookies.
Janice Buckley, the president of the non-profit homefront, makes the long drive from the eastside to Tacoma every month to deliver the goodies.
“In honor of (my son), I’m helping wounded soldiers,” Padilla said. “It opened my eyes.”
Padilla, whose father served in the Navy during WWII, said her son wanted to go into the Marines at an early age. Both mother and son credit a film he saw as a child.
“I saw a movie once and was immediately hooked to be a Marine,” Rosman wrote in an e-mail. “To be honest I couldn’t think of being anything else.”
He attended Snoqualmie Middle School in 1997-98, before moving to Orange County to live with his father. As soon as he graduated from high school, he joined the Marines at age 17 with a parental signature.
“If we hadn’t signed the papers, he would have got in two months later,” Padilla said. “He graduated from high school and a month later, he was in boot camp.”
Rosman called boot camp at Camp Pendleton “tough,” but it introduced him to the brotherhood of the Marines. His first deployment brought him to the city of Ramadi in central Iraq.
His mission was not without struggle and he pinpointed the days of April 6 and 7, 2004 as a personal turning point.
“We lost many good men on those days and I realized for the first time that no matter how hard you try to help people, they just don’t understand it,” Rosman wrote. “I left Ramadi with a bad taste in my mouth that we fought a lot of bad guys but we really didn’t win the real battle of the people.”
Rosman continued to patrol with his platoon. In June 2004, he felt something hit near his shoulder.
“He thought it was rocks because people had been throwing rocks at them,” Padilla said.
But it wasn’t rocks. Rosman had been shot three times.
Immediately, the Marines did everything they could to save him. They flew him to a hospital in Germany and then to San Diego.
“I was basically in shock,” Padilla said. “When I saw my son, he was all hooked up.”
He rehabilitated, but has permanent nerve damage where the bullets hit and will be on partial disability for the rest of his life.
Someone took a photo of Rosman during the initial days of his treatment. It’s a memento he carries to this day.
“It was a pretty horrible experience and it has motivated me to be the person I am today,” Rosman wrote. “When I feel I am getting lazy for whatever reason, I think back to that day and I realize every second you’re alive is a gift and its sad that it takes an event like that to make you understand that.”
After his recovery and receiving a purple heart, Rosman deployed to Okinawa, Japan. While there, he picked up the book “Spanish for Dummies,” and taught himself the language.
“I would ask questions to the Spanish-speaking Marines and improved tenfold,” Rosman wrote.
He deployed once more to the Anbar Province in western Iraq. In July 2007, Rosman officially became a veteran. Now, using the GI Bill, Rosman is spending the year studying abroad in Bilbao, Spain through a program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The Spanish he learned in Japan has come in handy, and he joked in his e-mail about his rusty English. Even through a partial language barrier, Rosman is still able to express his gratitude to his mother.
“I think it is incredible that my mom bakes cookies for the serviceman,” Rosman wrote. “She has a good heart and she has no idea how much getting a care package means and boosts morale.”
Padilla and her crew are baking pies for 300 service members for Thanksgiving and she is visiting the hospital Dec. 5 to hand out stocking stuffers. To get involved, e-mail her at BakerAngels1@aol.com.
Sandy Conway, one of the bakers, delivers sweet breads to Padilla’s collection of treats. Her son Andrew, an Army Second Lieutenant and 2004 Mount Si graduate, is stationed near Fort Lewis.
“This was something I felt like I could give back to my country,” Conway said of baking.
Mary Lamar-Likes of North Bend agreed.
“If this is all I can do for the soldiers, then I feel like I am honoring them,” Lamar-Likes said. “I am treating them with respect and dignity.”
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
Ellie
November 19, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Mother of wounded Marine war veteran bakes for U.S. armed forces
Every month, Donna Padilla of North Bend loads her minivan with dozens upon dozens of cookies, brownies, pies and other treats for injured servicemen and women at Madigan Army Medical Center.
She and her group of about 35 — dubbed “Baker’s Angels” — cook a storm of sweets whenever they have time, and they are inviting Valley bakers to join their fold.
Padilla began baking after her 23-year-old son, Jason Rosman, was wounded in Iraq. When she flew to the Naval Medical Center in San Diego to see him, she learned about support groups for families.
While at an Operation Homefront Washington meeting, Pedilla answered the call for baked goods and formed Baker’s Angels. Now she and other angels bake treats from chocolate-chip banana bread to peanut butter snicker cookies.
Janice Buckley, the president of the non-profit homefront, makes the long drive from the eastside to Tacoma every month to deliver the goodies.
“In honor of (my son), I’m helping wounded soldiers,” Padilla said. “It opened my eyes.”
Padilla, whose father served in the Navy during WWII, said her son wanted to go into the Marines at an early age. Both mother and son credit a film he saw as a child.
“I saw a movie once and was immediately hooked to be a Marine,” Rosman wrote in an e-mail. “To be honest I couldn’t think of being anything else.”
He attended Snoqualmie Middle School in 1997-98, before moving to Orange County to live with his father. As soon as he graduated from high school, he joined the Marines at age 17 with a parental signature.
“If we hadn’t signed the papers, he would have got in two months later,” Padilla said. “He graduated from high school and a month later, he was in boot camp.”
Rosman called boot camp at Camp Pendleton “tough,” but it introduced him to the brotherhood of the Marines. His first deployment brought him to the city of Ramadi in central Iraq.
His mission was not without struggle and he pinpointed the days of April 6 and 7, 2004 as a personal turning point.
“We lost many good men on those days and I realized for the first time that no matter how hard you try to help people, they just don’t understand it,” Rosman wrote. “I left Ramadi with a bad taste in my mouth that we fought a lot of bad guys but we really didn’t win the real battle of the people.”
Rosman continued to patrol with his platoon. In June 2004, he felt something hit near his shoulder.
“He thought it was rocks because people had been throwing rocks at them,” Padilla said.
But it wasn’t rocks. Rosman had been shot three times.
Immediately, the Marines did everything they could to save him. They flew him to a hospital in Germany and then to San Diego.
“I was basically in shock,” Padilla said. “When I saw my son, he was all hooked up.”
He rehabilitated, but has permanent nerve damage where the bullets hit and will be on partial disability for the rest of his life.
Someone took a photo of Rosman during the initial days of his treatment. It’s a memento he carries to this day.
“It was a pretty horrible experience and it has motivated me to be the person I am today,” Rosman wrote. “When I feel I am getting lazy for whatever reason, I think back to that day and I realize every second you’re alive is a gift and its sad that it takes an event like that to make you understand that.”
After his recovery and receiving a purple heart, Rosman deployed to Okinawa, Japan. While there, he picked up the book “Spanish for Dummies,” and taught himself the language.
“I would ask questions to the Spanish-speaking Marines and improved tenfold,” Rosman wrote.
He deployed once more to the Anbar Province in western Iraq. In July 2007, Rosman officially became a veteran. Now, using the GI Bill, Rosman is spending the year studying abroad in Bilbao, Spain through a program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The Spanish he learned in Japan has come in handy, and he joked in his e-mail about his rusty English. Even through a partial language barrier, Rosman is still able to express his gratitude to his mother.
“I think it is incredible that my mom bakes cookies for the serviceman,” Rosman wrote. “She has a good heart and she has no idea how much getting a care package means and boosts morale.”
Padilla and her crew are baking pies for 300 service members for Thanksgiving and she is visiting the hospital Dec. 5 to hand out stocking stuffers. To get involved, e-mail her at BakerAngels1@aol.com.
Sandy Conway, one of the bakers, delivers sweet breads to Padilla’s collection of treats. Her son Andrew, an Army Second Lieutenant and 2004 Mount Si graduate, is stationed near Fort Lewis.
“This was something I felt like I could give back to my country,” Conway said of baking.
Mary Lamar-Likes of North Bend agreed.
“If this is all I can do for the soldiers, then I feel like I am honoring them,” Lamar-Likes said. “I am treating them with respect and dignity.”
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
Ellie