Adopted, State of Illinois takes 542nd Medical Company under wing for 'Project Recreation'

Photo By Master Sgt. Ryan Matson | Sgt. 1st Class Darryl Leonard, a former drill sergeant and the Soldier in 542nd Medical Company who spearheaded Project Recreation, stands amidst boxes of games, books, sporting goods and other recreation supplies donated to the medical evacuation company deployed to Iraq from people in Illinois.  

03.03.2006

Courtesy Story

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Though they are separated by thousands of miles and have never met, Erik Smith, a concerned citizen out of Rolling Meadows, Ill., has changed the life of Sgt. 1st Class Darryl Leonard and all the Soldiers in 542nd Medical Company, deployed to Forward Operating Bare Speicher, near Tikrit, Iraq.

Smith and his sister, Heidi Milner, have taken it upon themselves to "adopt" the 542nd Medical Company through a program they started with Leonard called "Project Recreation."

The program has provided the Soldiers from the company with recreation outlets during their long deployment to Iraq, where they work providing helicopter medical evacuations to wounded Soldiers throughout northern Iraq.

"When we arrived here, there was no Morale, Welfare and Recreation facility," Leonard said in a building full of recreation and personal hygiene items. He was surrounded by a dartboard, a handcrafted ping-pong table, television, microwave, library, video collection, and shelves of board games and hygiene items. "This facility was a building that had nothing in it."

All of the items around Leonard were donated by people in Illinois through Project Recreation.

"Because of these items, the morale of the Soldiers has increased significantly," Leonard said. "They are more enthused, and you can see the difference in how they perform everyday."

Project Recreation was born Christmas Day through a simple Christmas card, and correspondence between Leonard and Smith. Smith had participated in something called Project Santa, a massive Christmas project in which Americans sent thousands of Christmas stockings to troops deployed to the Middle East. Leonard decided to pick up a stocking on Christmas morning, and in it found a Christmas card from Smith.

"I got his name and his e-mail address off his Christmas card," Leonard said. "I took it upon myself to e-mail him back, thanking him for the Christmas card."

The two continued corresponding and Smith asked what more he could do. Together, they came up with the idea of Project Recreation, a project that would provide recreation opportunities to Soldiers from the company year-round. Since, aside from a weight set, there weren't any recreation items in the company area, Leonard compiled a list of items the Soldiers could use.

Smith took the list to his local newspaper, the Peru News Tribune, and the project was underway. Soon, Leonard started receiving box upon box of donated recreation items. Leonard, the company motor pool sergeant, said he started making use of the donations when he and his Soldiers weren't busy maintaining the company's vehicles.

One day, he uncovered some concrete underneath an old building by the motor pool. Leonard and his Soldiers shoveled away all the sand on top and found the pad was big enough to become a basketball court. The only problem was they had no hoops. Soon after Smith's article reached the paper, the company had three sets of rims, nets and backboards. Leonard and his Soldiers " Sgt. Joshua Solem, Spc. Andrew Tiede, Spc. Ryan Young, Spc. Joshua Kodya, and Pvt. Omar Firpi - installed all three on the pad and a basketball court grew out of the desert sand. Beside it, they moved some gravel and set up volleyball net. The Soldiers even found a chair in the dump and made a stand for it, creating an umpire's chair.

"Once the article hit the paper and it went to the town, it became very big," Leonard said.

In fact, he said it spread throughout the state of Illinois. Schools, churches and citizens sent both care packages and recreation items. Senator Gary Dahl and his wife Debbie even donated $500 to the project.

Leonard and his Soldiers said they have made use of all donated items. He appointed Staff Sgt. James White to run the MWR building -- a small wooden building located just off the flight line. It's close enough to allow flight medics and pilots on stand-by to relax in between calls. The Soldiers built shelves to hold all the donated books, making a small library in the center. They did the same for a VCR and donated VHS tapes, creating a video library. A microwave was donated and placed in the center for Soldiers to heat up meals and snacks between calls.

The donations didn't end there.

"Some of the items they have sent include numerous baseball gloves, balls and bats, a karaoke machine, karaoke CDs, rackets, softballs, whiffle balls, and they're even sending a foosball table," Leonard said. "They've also sent food and many, many board games."

Besides the basketball and volleyball courts, Leonard and his Soldiers also constructed a horseshoe pit and he said plans are in the works to build a softball field this spring to make use of the donated gloves bats and balls.

All of the things Leonard and his Soldiers build are used by Soldiers in his company, but as Leonard pointed out, "MWR is open to everybody," meaning anyone deployed to FOB Speicher, military or civilian, can make use of the facilities.
"It's better to give than to receive, so our goal is to make it a better place for the next unit that comes along," Leonard said. "When we built this stuff, we just went off of talent, the talent that these Soldiers were blessed to have growing up."

Leonard has created a Web site to track the progress of all the things that have developed as a result of Project Recreation, and said that he and the company Soldiers stay in constant communication with many of the people in Illinois who have supported them.

"I would like to say that we appreciate everything that the people of Illinois have done for us," he said. "We appreciate the output and support that you have given us, and now this is here for the Soldiers"

Smith said he thinks finding Leonard and starting the project was no mistake.

"I am driven by the fact that I think everything in life happens for a reason," Smith said in one of his e-mails to Leonard. "A great example of that is how one of the Christmas stockings that I sent found its way to you."

• Date Taken: 03.03.2006
• Date Posted: 03.03.2006 14:41
• Story ID: 5588