My most recent article for the Town Square - Newport News section of the DAILY PRESS (10/20/2011). Somewhat amusing, but a good example of how a mother's love and some old fashioned elbow grease can do wonders. I'm still not sure if the 9,000 golf balls have arrived in Kuwait, but feel free to continue reading and learn how they got sent in the first place.
The initial request from the young soldier stationed
in Ali-Al-Saleem, Kuwait was simple enough.
Army Specialist/then PFC Louis Adams was lamenting
over the inability to keep his golf game in tune, mainly because of the lack of
equipment, particularly in the golf ball department. Being August, the young
man was eager to get out and hit some balls. On a whim, he e-mailed his mother
Sandra Wilkins, who works in the material management department at the Newport
News Shipyard. Louis knew of her connections with his sister’s cheerleading
board and decided to approach from that angle.
“Hey Mom, can you ask your friends if they or their
husbands play golf? If so, could they spare some golf balls for me and my
buddies?”
It seemed like an odd request, but Wilkins
diligently went to work. Looking to be
“a good Mom,” she started asking her friends from the cheerleading board.
One of these friends was Sherri Bush. Wilkins had
previously worked with Bush’s husband Darryl at the shipyard but was unaware of
his special connections. One of these connections was Joey Maben, golf coach at
the Apprentice School. Maben set into motion a chain of events which turned
Louis Adams’ request into a full blown mission, one which succeeded in
procuring over 9,000 golf balls for the soldiers in Kuwait.
Maben’s search developed into a two-pronged plan of
action. First, he approached his athletic director, Keisha Paxton. Paxton was
in tune with Maben’s initiative to “give something back” to the troops
overseas. Together, they met with Everett Jordan, director of the Apprentice
School. Jordan was eager to jump on board, and immediately approved a plan to
send a shipment of Titleist golf balls. However, one does not simply call the
company and order a dozen boxes of balls. According to Maben, “the thing I
remember is that the required order was a strange number.” Strange indeed. The
order to be placed had to be for 504 dozen balls. In layman’s terms, that
totals 6,048.
But Jordan was interested in knowing what more could
be done for the soldiers. In the end, he directed an effort to prepare another
care package, complete with plenty of knick-knacks, including Apprentice School
memorabilia and apparel.
With the wheels turning on the one end, Wilkins
looked toward her contacts in Newport News. Sheri Crocker was one of those
friends and she was also willing to lend a hand. Crocker went to her boss and
presented a simple question. “With regard to the city owned golf course, what
does the city do with their used golf balls?” As it turned out, they toss the
balls out, and were about to renew the process of replacing all of their range balls.”
With good timing on their side, the city was happy to donate 1,500 balls to the
cause.
Over at the shipyard, Maben wasn’t finished working
through his contact list. Thinking of his team’s practice facility, the coach
made a call to William Carson, owner of the Peninsula Golf Center. Carson added
to the cache by donating 1,800 more gently used balls. The total was now over
9,000.
This presented one previous overlooked problem. Says
Maben, “I thought, how are we going to get these balls to Kuwait?” Thinking of
his own close military connection, Maben placed a call to his daughter Amanda,
who works with the 82nd Airborne Division, based in Ft. Bragg, NC.
Although members of her outfit were about to be deployed to Kandahar,
Afghanistan, the younger Maben had time to get the word out. This led to a
connection with Chief Warrant Officer Jason Milligan, who was stationed on the
Army ship Gross. Milligan agreed to take the balls overseas, as long as they
could be delivered before his deployment on September 10. Mission half
accomplished.
Now the problem became more immediate. How does one
get 9,000 golf balls to a ship? Says Wilkins, “my feeling was that if the Army
was willing to take this shipment all the way to Kuwait, I was going to find a
way to get these balls to them.” Like the others, she turned to the military
and found another helping hand, this time in the form of John Belkers, head of
Community Services for Langley Air Force Base and Ft. Eustis. Belkers
“responded very quickly” and offered to get the golf balls on the ship,
provided that they could be delivered to Ft. Eustis. Now thinking outside of
the box, Wilkins agreed.
With the help of a friend, the determined woman
removed the seats of her minivan and made the ball pickup rounds, until her
vehicle was loaded to the top with little white balls. Happy with her
accomplishment, Wilkins successfully made the trip to Ft. Eustis and completed
her drop.
All checkpoints were reached and at this moment, the
golf balls are floating somewhere in the Pacific Ocean on the Charles P. Gross.
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