Veterans, Birthdays and Campaigns …


Last week was an eventful one for me.  For one, it included my 44th birthday.  I will get back to that later.  I was also busy at work and I had a few non-work related activities I wanted to participate in.  On Tuesday, June 5th, the day before the 68th Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, I participated in an event that is always a great joy.  For many years I have participated in welcoming Honor Flight to Washington, DC.  Honor Flight are ones that bring WWII veterans, at no cost to them, to Washington, DC to visit the memorial built in their honor.  Most of these men and women are in their 80s and 90s,.  Usually we welcome these charted flight of veterans at Reagan Airport.  A few times each year, however, there are flight that originate from my home state of Iowa.  For these flight we meet the veterans and at the memorial, welcome them and then walk around helping with any of their needs.  Last Tuesday’s flight was from eastern Iowa, my neck of the woods.  There were approximately 95 veterans and guardians in the group.  As always I greatly enjoyed helping and even met a father/son team from a tiny town close to where I grew up.
  

Wednesday, June 6th, D-Day, was my 44th birthday.  The day was full of meetings and little celebration.  All those that I love are half way across the country in Iowa and Wisconsin. I did start the day with a great run.  At 44 running my age was out of the question, especially considering I had other obligation that day.  Instead I decided to run the sum of my birthday 4+4=8 .. in all I ran 8.88 miles at an 8:16 pace.  The pace, and the multiple of 8 was pure coincidence.  The best part of the day was an evening call from my 3 favorite little people in the world … my 2 nieces aged 4 & 2 and my nephew aged 1.  Nothing makes me smile quite like hearing their voice, well other than seeing them.  Apparently my 2 year old niece kept trying to show me pictures she had drawn for me.  They talk to their uncle on the iPad via Facetime.  Unfortunately I don’t have an iPad.  All-in-all it was just a regular day.

In conjunction with my birthday I urged my friends, family and my FB/Twitter universe to consider making a donation to my Team USO – Marine Corps Marathon campaign equal to a multiple of the sum of my birthday.  While I only got 1 contribution, it did give me a way to get out word that,. Yes, for the 5th time I will be running the Marine Corps Marathon as part of Team USO.  This will be my 7th marathon and my 6th Marine Corps Marathon, my 5th running as part of Team USO.    If you have a minute, please take a look at my fundraising page and consider making a contribution!  My sites can be found at www.TeamUSO.org/2012/Marlene_English.