At an outdoor ceremony at the Owego Elementary School on March 31, members of the Hiawatha Stingers Soccer Team presented soccer balls (deflated) to Pfc. Justin Donnelly, a 2004 graduate of Owego Free Academy who is now an Army Medic with the 10th Mountain Division attached to the 12th Battalion at Camp Liberty near Baghdad, Iraq. The soccer balls will be distributed to needy children in his foot patrol sector of Baghdad.
“The kids in our sector are not the children of wealthy families...they love playing soccer...they come up to us and ask for soccer balls.” said Donnelly in an e-mail to Jim Raftis. “If we could get hold of some soccer balls to give to these kids it would make them happy. If you could only see the faces that these children make when we give them a soccer ball. It’s like we just made their whole day better.”
Donnelly is the son of James and Valerie Donnelly of Owego.
VFW Post 1371 Color Guard also took part in the ceremony.
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