'Adopt-a-soldier' takes on platoon

[Hoss68]

Doug Grow, Star Tribune
Published February 1, 2004
GROW01

Sometimes, good deeds just keep growing. For example, a few weeks back, Kevin Ries stopped by the cubicle of his colleague, Ernie Peacock, and said he'd come across an adopt-a-soldier program.

"You want to get involved?" Ries asked.

"What are we waiting for?" Peacock responded.

And with that, the two hard-charging salespeople were off on a mission.

The Edina Realty employees "adopted" Sgt. First Class Brian Woodcock, who is stationed in Iraq with the 331st Signal Brigade.

They sent a small package to Woodcock, along with a note of introduction.

He sent a thank-you note and mentioned the 78 other soldiers in his platoon.

The response?

Ries and Peacock adopted the whole platoon.

"What do they want?" they asked Woodcock in an e-mail.

The sergeant surveyed his troops and came up with a long list, including an abdominal ball ("female soldiers want one for exercising," Woodcock explained); deer jerky ("our hunters are missing venison!" the sarge wrote); jump ropes; coffee and hot chocolate mix; miniature tool kits; walkie-talkies; Odor Eaters ("for our boots!!"); magazines ("hunting, fishing, car, truck and Cosmo for our females"). The list went on and on.

"I know this is a long list," Woodcock wrote. "Anything you can get would be greatly appreciated. All that I receive I will hand out at mail call."

Ries and Peacock were undaunted. They went to work, pounding on doors of various retailers.

"It feels good to be doing something for these people," said Peacock. "And I don't mind going out and asking for people to help. If we can't get something for free, then we ask for a discount. If we can't get something for a discount, then we just move on."

To date, about 18 large boxes of goods have been shipped to "their" platoon. More are on the way.

And their adopted family keeps growing.

In further e-mail conversations with Woodcock, they learned that Woodcock's wife, Tina, was about to have their second child.

Ries and Peacock adopted Tina Woodcock and the couple's 13-year-old son, Nick.

"I found her phone number and called her up, sort of out of the blue," Peacock said. "I was telling her, 'We adopted your husband; anything we can do for you?' You could tell that she was wondering, 'Who is this guy?' "

But Tina, who gave birth to Brianna last week, learned quickly that it doesn't take long to get to know the effusive Peacock.

"I can't describe what it's like to have people who don't even know you to suddenly take an interest in you," she said in a phone conversation from her home in Kansas. "It just makes things seem a little less difficult."

Ries and Peacock sent flowers to mother and baby, and a package of baby clothes is in the mail.

"I had a friend embroider 'Daddy's Girl' on a few of the things," said Peacock. "I thought it would be nice for her to send pictures wearing the little 'Daddy's Girl' outfit."

Peacock, 67, has offered the Woodcock family use of his northern Minnesota cabin when the sergeant returns from duty, probably in September.

"He said that if we can't use it right away, we can use it any time," said Tina. "It's just wonderful."

Peacock said there's nothing particularly wonderful about what he and Ries are doing.

"They don't need to be thanking us," said Peacock, who describes himself as the sort of guy who gets a lump in his throat when he hears patriotic music. "We need to be thanking them."

(Information about the program can be found on the Internet at http://www.adopt-a-soldier.com. For those interested in supporting Minnesota National Guard troops and their families, there's a program led by the state's First Lady, Mary Pawlenty, called "First Lady's Military Family Care Initiative." A direct link for information on that program can be found at http://www.governor.state.mn.us.)