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| Tom Kennedy and family |
Some sad news came out West Point yesterday. Former Black Knight hockey player Tom Kennedy died in Afghanistan on Wednesday from a suicide bomb attack.
I really won't go into the whole thing since USCHO has covered it all pretty well.
But, what I can do is tell you all how you can help in this sad situation.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with my connection to Army Hockey. My family had season tickets to Tate Rink at West Point from the mid-1990's to the mid-2000's. Growing up, I rarely missed a home game. It's where I learned to love hockey, and college hockey especially. I got to know a few players and their families during my time there.
This past Fall, Anthony "Tony" Felice, a former captain of the Army Hockey team in the late 1990's contacted me after reading this post from when I ran the Union Hockey Blog. Since then we've had several email exchanges about Army Hockey and other topics, and we were lucky enough to meet up and talk for a few minutes in Tampa during the Frozen Four this past April.
When I heard the news about Kennedy, the first person I thought of was Tony. I sent him an email this morning sending my condolences to him and the entire Army Hockey family, and asked him if there's anything I could do to help.
Here's an email from Tony explaining how we can all help:
All,
This week one of my very close friends, Major Tommy Kennedy, was killed in Afghanistan. I played hockey with Tommy at West Point for 2 years. He was in a convoy and apparently two suicide bombers attacked the convoy, killing a total of 3 people. Tommy was Class of 2000 and had served for 12 years. Tommy had already served two prior tours in Iraq and he was just recently deployed to Afghanistan for his 3rd tour. The hardest part of the story is that Tommy leaves behind a wife and twin 2-year-olds (they turn 2 in a week or so). Unfortunately, they will never have an opportunity to know how amazing their father was. Tommy's family and close friends are in the process of setting up a trust for the benefit of Tommy’s kids. In the meantime, a link has been set up for people that want to give money to help out the family. If any of you would like to contribute, the link is below, if not please forward to people that you think would like to help. And those knowledge with Facebook or Twitter please get the link below out, he was a great Army Officer, teammate and man and will be sorely missed. Thanks
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Any support is needed at this time. I hope the college hockey community can come together and support the Kennedy's in their time of need.
Thank you for reading this post, and have a good weekend.
Everest Base Camp Trekking is found in Tibet & Nepal between the fences at an elevation of 5364m with Mount Everest both sides; the Nepal side has more natural beauty.
ReplyDeleteThis is where true adventure begins…
This is one trip you don’t won’t to miss, & that’s why it’s aptly called the king of all trips. The journey begins with a flight to one of the highest landing airports in the world, & once we get off the twin otter, our eyes begin to take in the gigantic surroundings that stirs our emotions to the bone, as we sort out our equipment & the porters carry what has to be carried & our guides lead the way by the banks of the Dudh Kosi River. We clamber on our set trail through colorful villages as the panoramic scenery begins to take hold of us as we hike through farmlands & bump into the friendly sherpa folks, the local inhabitants of the ‘Khumbu’ {the original name of the Everest region}, known for their legendary climbing skills & warm welcoming nature; our walk soon brings us the the capital of the Khumbu, a thriving town called ‘Namche’, & this is where we get our first views of massive Everest & other silver grey peaks that literally stop the breath for a moment. Namche is the kind of town that will stun you for all the facilities it has within its boundaries, where you will find things not even available in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu. Namche is the first outpost that gives you your first acclimatizing process which gets your body used to the higher elevations that come further on in the course of your trip.
As we haul up for a night in Namche, we begin to observe many other fellow trekkers having a good time, of which some are on their way up while some are on their way down.