|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Baseball Fan Gets A Hero's Reward
By Zac Anderson, staff writer Daily News
July 11, 2004
-- Tim Calvert grew up within home run distance of a ball
field. Raised by his mom in a single-parent household, Calvert learned to play
the game of baseball with neighborhood children and by hanging around the church
league games at the field in front of his house.
Although he was practically raised on a baseball
diamond, the nearest professional team is at least a day's drive away from
Calvert's Niceville home. At 13, he's long past the age when most young boys
are dazzled by the sites and sounds of their first pro game.
But that day is fast approaching, and it won't be any
ordinary trip to the ballpark.
When Calvert attends the July 17 game between the
Atlanta Braves and the Montreal Expos, he'll sit in a luxury skybox and get to
meet some of the pro players.
The special treatment might be Calvert's divine reward
for waiting patiently for so long, but the people at Southern LINC, a regional
communications company, had other good deeds in mind.
The company sponsored a contest called The Southern
Heroes Award to acknowledge "the selfless acts of everyday heroes."
Calvert's mom, Diana Reese, saw a newspaper
advertisement for the contest and thought her son fit the description.
For more than two years now, Calvert has spent many
evening sorting and packaging school supplies to send to Iraq. After the war
broke out, Calvert and his family started what has come to be known as operation
Iraqi Friendship.
The group has collected more than $15,000 in school
supplies and is still going strong.
When school starts back up, Calvert and his sisters
will pass out flyers and collection boxes will begin to fill again.
A mound of toys and crayons and notebooks will appear
in the family's home and Calvert will spend many more hours putting packages
together.
But on July 17, only one thing will be on the
teenager's mind.
"He loves baseball," Reese said. "It's exciting, his
first major league game."
Reese surprised her son with the news recently.
Southern LINC left a telephone message and Reese was nearly crying as her son
listened to the news with a shocked expression on his face.
"A lot of good things has come out of this," Calvert
said of the contest. "It's been great."
 *In
addition to the night at the Brave's game, Southern LINC
made a $1000 donation to Operation Iraqi Friendship in Tim's name. Tim would
like to thank Southern LINC for selecting him as a Southern Hero
and the wonderful experience at his first major league game. Tim said meeting
Brave's player, John Smoltz and having people tell him what a hero he is while
attending his first pro game, was the experience of a lifetime and an experience
he won't ever forget. "The people at Southern LINC were so
friendly and it was an honor to spend the evening with them at the Brave's
game. Since I grew up without a dad, the game was even more special for me
because I got to sit next to the President of Southern LINC during
the game who loves baseball as much as I do. I will always remember this
special night and thank the people at Southern LINC who made it
happen and presented me with this honor!" Tim Calvert
To find out more about Southern LINC
and the Southern Heroes Award visit
www.southernlinc.com.
For More Information
Contact:
Operation Iraqi Friendship
P.O. Box 27, Niceville, FL 32588
Internet:
info@operationiraqifriendship.org
| 
Operation Iraqi Friendship
