Tuesday, November 27, 2012

The Spirit of Giving - Helping a Freshly Wounded Warrior


Just as I was getting ready to put together the previous Blog posting about holiday giving and Advent Conspiracy, I received an e-mail that I knew I had to share.  It fits beautifully with the spirit of giving that I was writing about earlier.

My friend, Josh Ollek, is a West Point graduate who is currently pursuing an MBA at Harvard Business School.  His e-mail, copied below, made me aware of an urgent need to help the family of one of Josh's West Point classmates who was just wounded in Afghanistan.


"I learned today that one of my West Point classmates, CPT Edward "Flip" Klein was seriously injured in Afghanistan.  Flip lost both of his legs, his right arm, and 3 of his fingers on his left hand when an IED exploded on him while leading a patrol.  I wasn't very close with Flip, but as a fellow infantry officer and his classmate, I did know him fairly well.  Having been so far removed from this war for the past year and half, I've almost forgot about the sacrifices being made over there.  After learning about what happened to Flip, I found a website that some friends made for him to help raise money for him and his family during his recovery.  Feeling somewhat helpless already, this made me feel like I had some ability to help out.  I've tried to send the link along to the folks I know that can get the word out.  Rye Barcott graciously posted it on his website, which has guided several people to it already.  I was hoping you may be able to do this same through your blog.  It may make for a good post for you after the Thanksgiving holiday.  I'm sure Flip would appreciate any attention you can bring to his cause.  Here is the link: http://www.gofundme.com/1gmj20?pc=fb_d

Sorry for the dreary news.  I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.  I look forward to talking soon. 

Take Care,


JOSH OLLEK"

+   +   +   +   +   +   +

Josh's e-mail prompted me to go to the link provided above, and to donate to this family.  If you want to get an early start on your holiday giving, I invite you to join me in helping The Klein family.

Al


http://www.gofundme.com/1gmj20?pc=fb_d

1 comment:

Josh Rizzo said...

Doing it right now Al. Thanks for posting this. I'm going to share it on my FB feed as it will get more exposure than my humble blog. There's so much I want to say right now - gosh - thank you for posting this...