Number of Participants: 40
Hours Donated: 7
Value of Time Served: $2,366
Event Type: Veterans & Military Families
Sport: Wrestling
School: Ossining High School
Date: January 9, 2020
Location:
29 S Highland Ave
Ossining, NY 10562
USA
About:
My name is Tom Larm and I am the head wrestling coach at Ossining High School. Prior to this year I served as an assistant coach for the last seven seasons. Each year we host a wrestling match dedicated to the local veterans. This year will be our 12th annual. We invite any local veteran to be our guests of honor that night. They sit matside for the match and get introduced before the match. The kids make sure to shake their hand before they report for their individual match that night. Many of the veterans in attendance are patients at the local VA Hospital in Montrose NY, just about 15 minutes away from us.
After the match each veteran is escorted by our JV and Modified teams to the cafeteria for a pot-luck dinner provided by our families. This is important to us because this provides home cooked food for many veterans who are patients in the VA Hospital and don’t often get this opportunity. During this time the athletes get to interact with our guests. They get to hear their stories and insight, while making them feel special.
In edition to our annual wrestling match we try to do something else as a way to say thanks to our veterans. In years past we have created and donated event t-shirts to each veteran in attendance, we have also collected donations of model toys (Planes and cars) for them to use during their days at the hospital. Our favorite thing to do though, is to host a meet and greet lunch at the VA hospital prior to the actual wrestling match. We take a field trip with the varsity team to visit the veterans in the hospital and provide pizza for lunch. During this time the wrestlers serve the veterans and share a meal and hear their stories. We felt this was the most successful way to encourage all the veterans to attend the wrestling match, thus getting them out of the hospital and taking their minds off of whatever they may be struggling with currently. The kids create a bond with the veterans at lunch and then are able to reconnect with them in their own environment and share something they love with the veterans which is wrestling.
https://oufsd.smugmug.com/Athletics/2019-2020-Ossining-Wrestling-/