Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Heroes Haven 2015

The past couple weeks have been busy for our family. Justin was able to schedule a trip to Walter Reed around our trip to the Eastern Shore for the Heroes Haven hunting trip. His sockets hadn’t been fitting properly and the local civilian prosthetist just isn’t as fast as the people at Walter Reed. So, I dropped him off at the airport and he flew up to Maryland to get some leg work done. While he was there, he was able to tie some fishing flies with our Project Healing Waters friends. He had hoped to go fishing with them, but the trip was cancelled due to a water main break on the road in front of the hospital complex. He left our house wearing one set of legs and with another set in his suitcase. He came home with 3 ½ sets (the ½ is just the feet with no sockets – the sockets can be taken from one set and put on those when needed) and another set is being mailed down because they weren’t ready when he left. He now has more legs than an octopus. One of his new sets of legs puts him back at 6’4” (his pre-injury height). This is the first time he’s been that tall since he was injured. Now he can pick his legs based on how long the pants are that he wants to wear. He has a pair that was a little long with his other legs, so they should work perfectly with his new legs. With his new legs, sleeves, and liners in his possession, he was ready to go on to the next part of the trip.

Last week on Tuesday, Justin got a ride out to Sharptown, MD and Corey and I packed up our truck to start our trip to meet him there. Thankfully, Corey and I had great weather for the drive and traffic moved at a steady pace the whole way (and considering some of the sections we traveled, that’s just about a miracle). On Wednesday, we were able to meet up with one of my Army wife friends that I met in Germany. We’ve kept in touch and chat often, but it’s been a couple years since we’d seen each other. When I told her we would be heading to Maryland and would pass by where she lives on the way, we made plans to meet up. I wish we could have hung out longer, but I still had a few hours left to drive and Justin was waiting for me to bring his muzzle loader for him to sight in before the hunts. While we were driving, Justin and the other guys who were there for the Heroes Haven event were at the gun range. They sighted in their muzzle loaders and then had some fun trying out the guns that local gun manufacturer, LWRC, brought. I arrived after the guys had finished shooting the LWRC guns and the last few were sighting in their muzzle loaders. Justin sighted in his, and then took Corey over to a shorter ranger and let Corey shoot a few rounds through his little .22 Cricket before we headed over to the skeet shooting area.





After the shooting, it was time to head to the Sharptown American Legion. Since this was our third year, we knew what to expect, but some of the new guys were clueless and it was a bit emotional for them. The weather was beautiful and there was a great turnout of bikers to escort us and people lining the streets to welcome us to Sharptown. Our first year, it was strangers welcoming us. This year, like last year, it was friends welcoming us back…and it was very good to be back. Over the next few days, the guys went out hunting. There weren’t as many deer shot this time around (sadly, we saw 10x the number that were shot that had been hit by cars on the interstate), but I don’t think that anyone would say that Heroes Haven 2015 wasn’t a success. You see, hunting is what may bring them to Sharptown, but it’s the community, not the deer, that make Heroes Haven something special.





Two years ago, Justin, Corey, and I were the first family to come to the Heroes Haven event. Previously it had just been the guys who were hunting. This year, there were several families who came. On Friday, some of us went to a pumpkin patch and let the kids pick out pumpkins. We had planned to pick some apples, but it wasn’t open that day. On Saturday, a bunch of us went to a corn maze. The kids had a blast…and the adults tried to keep the group from getting too lost.



Then came the banquet on Saturday evening. As always, the banquet was a wonderful evening. The new guys were presented with keys to the city of Sharptown, memberships to the American Legion, and their guns that they’d used throughout the week. This year, Heroes Haven had someone who hadn’t served in the military. The board voted to open it up to law enforcement that had been wounded in the line of duty, and this year was the first year they had a police officer. Since he had never been in the military, he wasn’t eligible to join the American Legion, but he was accepted into the Sons of the American Legion. It was a very special night for all of the new guys. Then the guys from previous years were given the trophies from the previous season. Ray, the man in charge of making everything happen, was given a crossbow by the guys from previous years and he was speechless. It was nice to see the guys giving back. At one point during the evening, several of the guys from last year announced that they would pass around baskets and if enough money was collected, Kendall would shave his beard and if even more was, he’d shave his whole head. A couple men from the community jumped in and offered to shave their beards as well. Nearly $2400 was raised!





Sunday morning was, as Corey calls it, the good-bye breakfast. We enjoyed one last meal with our friends before we had to hit the road to head back home. We took a different route home and went through some underwater tunnels. It was a more scenic route, but traffic was lighter, so it wasn’t too bad. We made it home yesterday evening. I’m so glad we made the trip to Maryland, but man, is it good to be home.