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I
recently participated in the Business of Reading program at Blanche
Sprentz elementary school. All of us volunteers were gathered in the
school's cafeteria for instructions and assignments, where we were
given the opportunity to introduce ourselves and what
company/business we were representing. The principal, when going
around the room, picked a woman, who then stood up and said, "My
name is Sue Walker. I am representing Wells Fargo and this ye ar, I
am also representing my son, Corey Fondersmith,
who
is a Corporal in the United States Marine Corp. Corey is stationed in Iraq,
where he and others are helping to build back the schools, so
children, like here at Blanche Sprentz, will be able to read too."
After some applause, the
introductions continued, and when we were split up for assignments,
I lost sight of Sue. I
couldn't forget what she had
said, and I so I sought out
to find her and more about her son, Corey. I finally tracked her
down at a her office, and found
that she was so eager
to share about her son, and to let us at
MyFolsom.com know
more about him. This is what she
told me:
Sue
and her husband, Mike Fondersmith, are very proud of their son. He
is an ordinary guy, who grew up in Folsom, played
little league baseball, and went on to play both baseball and
football in high school. He graduated
from Folsom High in
2000, leaving 1 week later for
Marine boot camp. His grandparents, Patsy and Larry Walker
were owners of the famous, Patsy's Soda Parlor on Sutter Street,
which as many of us know, closed after
32 years. Corey, some of his friends, cousins and other
family members worked and hung around the shop. Grandma loved to see
them all and of course fed them. Corey was away when it closed.
In this, his second tour in
Iraq, he serves in the 1st
Recon Battalion, based in and around the Fallujah area, where some
of the fiercest fighting of
the war has taken place. He can’t say too much about what he does, only
that he works with developing the Iraqi Security forces. He
tries to check in with Mom and Dad so they don't worry too
much. He knows that Mom just needs to hear his voice sometimes. He
has shared some amazing stories with Sue and Mike and she gets teary
eyed when she shares them
with me. She told me one, where Corey and his fellow Marines arrived
in a town near the beginning of the war, and gave some of their food
rations to some children that looked to him as needing it more than
them. She says, "You just
have to know Corey", as this
didn’t surprise her, "he
just loves kids." It was one
thing he said that really
bothers him, seeing how those
kids live.
Corey
is scheduled to return to the states, back to Camp Pendleton, around
the beginning of October. His time with the Marine Corp will be up
sometime in March of next year. His sights are set on a career in law
enforcement, and would like to come back to the Sacramento area. His
plans also include marrying his finance, Dayna, who
he met by the way, on a
plane the day before 9/11, when traveling from here back to Camp
Pendleton.
If you
ever get the chance, welcome this ordinary guy home, thank him for
his sacrifice, and let him know how important he is to
America, and how proud we are of him, here in Folsom.
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