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Posted on 09/15/2009 7:48:38 PM PDT by llevrok
KENT, Wash. - A military wife and her hockey friends are working to help homesick soldiers enjoy the “coolest game on Earth” in one of the hottest places - in the desert of Afghanistan.
Brenda and Rob Mason of Kent have a solid marriage built on the slippery ice of a hockey rink. The love affair for each other, and the game goes back nearly 30 years to their second date.
"He took me to a hockey game. He said if we’re going to be together, you’re going to have to like hockey. And I did," says Brenda.
But for the fourth time in recent years their marriage has been put on ice – another deployment for Rob, an army reservist. This time it’s into the increasingly dangerous desert of Afghanistan.
"That was really hard," says Brenda, choking back tears. "We just didn’t know what to expect."
That was an understatement for Rob, who after a few days in Kandahar, wrote his wife telling her there was a massive street hockey rink on the base. "He said 'They have hockey in the desert!'" Brenda recalls with a wide smile.
Friends with the Kent Valley Hockey Association are now collecting sticks and gear to send to the sand.
"I can only imagine how happy they are to be able to play," says Lew Sellers of the KVHA. "I know how it would make me feel."
The soldiers play in a co-ed league, under massive generator-operated lights, on a nearly full size concrete rink in Kandahar – now the largest coalition base in the country. But you don’t see American flags on the boards here – only Canadian – they, after all, built the facility.
It’s a point of honor for Canadian Les Grauer, who also works with the KVHA.
"We have it in our blood, what can I say. We get to the desert and build a hockey rink," says Grauer.
For more information on how you can donate hockey gear, contact the association at www.kentvalleyhockey.com .
wa ping
(Big grin)... that's what I would have said too!!
I think I know a soccer ref that might be willing to participate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-3cuCEt9k8
And on the eighth day, God created hockey and the world was perfected.
Say WA? Evergreen State ping
Quick link: WA State Board
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.
Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.
LOL! I don’t think he would last long.
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