Derek's
injuries hit home for us immediately because he serves with a unit we
have been supporting for several tours -- 3d Platoon, B Company, 2-87th INF, 3rd
BCT, 10th MTN DIV. Derek was selected for a very responsible job in the Platoon by one of our former adoptees, now with the Rear Det. and Derek deployed to AFG. So it's already
personal. We were notified by both our current adoptee, SSG Chris L and
our former adoptee, SSG Eric J. What made it even more tragic is that
Derek is a kickboxer and so we hurt inside even more when we learned of
this tragedy and his amputations.
After finding his Prayers for Derek McConnell facebook page,
we connected with a fantastic supporter named Lynne Gilbert and we
started working together to bring some joy and extra support for Derek's
morale (and his family's). Here are just some of the supporters who
have joined us to help Derek (in alpha order):
The Ancient Order of Hibernians; Sebastian
Junger; MMA fighters; the NJ Elks Army of Hope; the New York Jets; the
New York Mets; the New York Giants; CBS Sports; Gary Sinise; Microsoft Xbox, EA's Medal of Honor, Chuck Liddell and other UFC Fighters (more
details to come) and the Zilinski Family have all been supportive of Derek's recovery.
(19 August 2011) A check for $2500 was presented to Derek's Brother and his Grandfather on Friday evening by the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Middletown, NJ. Thank you AOH Divison 2, Monmouth, NJ, for this great contribution! The NJ Elks Army of Hope followed with a $5,000 donation. Thank you NJEAOH! Thanks Jim, Bruce and everyone that helped make that possible!
We
are planning a trip to the National Medical Center next week. If Derek is able to have visitors we will stop in. The Washington
Redskins Cheerleaders, our partners in Operation Teddy Bear, will be
joining us to bring some cheers to Derek and some teddy bears to him and
his other 10th Mountain Fighters at the hospital -- as well as others.
Thanks
to Lynne Gilbert, Derek received some very special greetings from Porky
Pig and also from Empress Repulsa of the Power Rangers show (see below
and click on the links to listen). Thanks to Bob Bergen from Looney
Tunes and Barbara Goodson as Empress Repulsa!
If you'd like to help Derek and other Wounded Warriors please let us know.
And please remember - our Warriors with brain injuries from deployments
may look just fine, but they are wounded inside - many terribly -
and need our understanding, love and care. TBI and PTSD are terrible
results of war as well.
We
will feature our Wounded as they permit. Thank you. Blessings and love
to our Warriors and their families. Life changing injuries are just that
- they last a lifetime.
So we all need to help out as best we can!
Thank you.
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