Popular game helps wounded soldiers

[thedrifter]

Popular game helps wounded soldiers

By TOM BERRY
Staff Writer

A tournament involving the popular “cornhole” bag toss game Saturday at the Big Apple restaurant raised about $2,000 that will benefit soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines wounded during conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The money is used to help provide backpacks to about 14,000 military personnel recovering in hospitals. The backpacks are filled with items they need to make them more comfortable during their recuperation.

Mary Ellen Smith, who organized the event with assistance from Big Apple manager Boone Chambers, said she and others in Murray wanted to do all they could to help those who have suffered severely in the war.

“What we have found out is that when they are severely wounded and they leave to go to a hospital in Baghdad or Germany, that they have nothing. They put them in a nightgown and that's it,” Smith said. “These backpacks have toiletries, they have T-shirts, they may have lounge pants or a deck of cards, a lot of things that they need to make their stay more comfortable.”

Smith was aided in organizing the event by New York City resident Lynn McGuinn. McGuinn's husband, an employee at a financial firm located inside one of the World Trade Center buildings, was killed during the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.


McGuinn, a friend of Smith's, often travels to similar events to support efforts to aid soldiers involved in the War on Terror.

Ellie