Posted on 09/30/2003 10:18:15 AM PDT by Ex-Dem
Kyle Barden is 24, less than six years out of Olympic High School in Charlotte, and two years from West Point. Yet he finds himself in the middle of world affairs.
Barden is an Army ranger, a first lieutenant. He's been in Iraq since before the war started, and after war's end he was assigned to oversee rebuilding of a small northern town called Laylan, near Kirkuk.
He has helped form a new town council. He has trained and deployed a police force and has mediated disputes between tribes.
His greatest joy -- and challenge -- are the children. The town has 11 schools; only eight function, and even those have few resources.
Now when his large family in Charlotte and elsewhere asks what he needs, he quickly responds: school supplies.
They have started a drive for "Kyle's schools."
"He said he was already getting tons of stuff from the family and gives most of it away," said older brother Taylor, a Charlotte financial adviser. "He said these kids and schools have absolutely nothing; they barely have classrooms.
"He said they don't know any better; they don't know good from evil. He said he believes, `If I can show them some good, you never know what kind of change it would make in their lives.' "
So last week Taylor wrote to members of the extended Barden family, asking for help on behalf of his brother. "We come from such a big family," he said. "Our family has always been more than willing to help us in any way we need."
Already, through word of mouth, the drive for "Kyle's schools" has become bigger than he imagined.
He's heard from a school in Florida that wants to sponsor a Laylan school. Two pencil companies and Bank of America, where Taylor Barden banks, are donating 7,500 pencils. A Girl Scout troop in Tennessee e-mailed Monday to ask what they could do. Strangers have sent money.
On Monday, Taylor Barden set up a bank account for the donations. "I'm getting a response so far from a lot of people we don't even know," he said.
As a boy in the Steele Creek community, Kyle Barden wanted to be in the military -- like his grandfather, retired Brig. Gen. John Costa, himself a West Point man.
Kyle couldn't go outside to play without his camouflage uniform. He wrestled at Olympic, and he finished near the top of his West Point class.
He finished ranger school three months after West Point and was assigned to the 173rd Airborne, based in Ederle, Italy.
Last March the 173rd waited to invade northern Iraq, but Turkey wouldn't give them passage, so they were dropped into the country.
They were supposed to clear out staging areas for the invasion and leave within two weeks. But officials decided to keep them in Iraq, and Kyle's unit wouldn't be leaving until next April.
No one is surprised that Kyle Barden is active in the peacekeeping and rebuilding effort in Iraq.
"He has always been a leader," Taylor Barden said.
The Barden brothers, graduates of Olympic and Kennedy Middle School, want other schools to sponsor a Laylan school. Taylor is talking with paper companies to donate paper. Money donations could go for buying more supplies and shipping them.
They will accept donations of money and supplies through October -- and perhaps into November.
Their efforts aren't going unnoticed by former neighbors in Steele Creek who watched them grow up.
"Everyone holds that family in high esteem," said Brenda Rhodes, whose son grew up with the Barden boys on the ball fields around the neighborhood and at Steele Creek Presbyterian Church. "I am so moved by what those boys are trying to do for these kids in Iraq."
Meanwhile, 1st Lt. Barden believes his greatest impact in the region will be changing the lives and beliefs of those children.
"We've always been taught to give back," Taylor Barden said. "There are 2,000 kids in that town and all their lives, they've been taken from and lied to. Now Kyle wants to give back to them and hopefully do some good. He wants to show goodwill, show them that we're not there to take from them.
"We're there to help."
Want to Help?
Make checks out to Taylor Barden and write: "For Kyle's Schools." Mail donations to Bank of America, Attn. Fred Wolf, Banking Center Number: NC1-002-LL05, 101 S. Tryon St., Charlotte, NC 28255.
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Reach David Perlmutt: (704) 358-5061; dperlmutt@charlotteobserver.com.
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