Swimming, Baseball, and Volleyball!

Hello Friends (Christy here) –

September has been super busy as I continue flying in my requal program at work and get ready to move to Arizona in November (going to Davis Monthan AFB to continue flying HC-130s there).  I’ve been able to do some cool things outside of work lately though, so let me tell you about them:

I was honored to be invited by John and Tammy Eunice to participate in the 5th Annual “The Clock is Ticking” swim event.  John and Tammy founded TCT7 – a non-profit following the tragic death of their 17 year-old son James to raise money for local community search and rescue equipment. They also provide scholarships to high school students. The event is amazing because it brings people from the community and the base together to celebrate James’ life and continue to help people here in Valdosta.  They invited me to speak at their dinner and then the next day, Tim and I,and my friends Cortney, Brandon, and John – all swam in the 1.0 mile event.  It was fun but pretty freaking far, haha!  Some people swam 3.5 and 7.0 miles, so that was pretty cool to watch.  After we swam our “short” 1.0 mile, we paddleboarded to the other swimmers doing the longer events.  The Eunice’s are a great family that I feel blessed to have met them.  In perfect southern hospitality, they cook for me and my friends whenever we can slow down enough to head over there.  We talk about how they didn’t want to be in the situation they are in – just like I didn’t want this either – but using it to help others helps with the tough days.

Following the TCT7 swim, I headed to Washington D.C. where I got to throw out the first pitch at the Mets/Nationals game on Air Force day! Being an long-time softball player and baseball fan (go Giants!) it was pretty cool to throw the first pitch at a Major League Game.  I thought it’d be funny to flip my leg upside down at the knee and hold the ball on the bottom of my foot before flipping the leg back down and pitching (I just didn’t want to fall over ha) and so I did that and got a few laughs from the crowd, not to mention threw a strike (take that David! – my brother also threw out the first pitch at the Giants game after the Sochi Olympics).  Thanks to Tim and my friend Keegan for practicing with me so I didn’t embarrass myself out there!  One of the AF Generals gave me a hard time for not telling everyone I was a softball player before the pitch and I said, “Sir, of course I didn’t tell you – then it would have been even worse if I screwed it up or fell over.”

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Then, this past weekend, I got to travel down to Titusville High School (Florida), which is where my good friend Katie went to high school.  The volleyball team was doing a fundraiser for the OLUOL Foundation, which was pretty awesome of them to do.  I’ve been with Katie to visit her family there several times before I lost my leg and had met her coaches and other people in the community.  After my accident, they contacted me and said they wanted to do their next volleyball game fundraiser our foundation – so they have been planning this for a year! Katie took Friday off and she met me there. We got to talk to tons of students and hang out with the volleyball team before their games; everyone was so supportive and excited to help out with the Foundation! Also, by the way – there are some volleyball t-shirts left over  -so let us know if you want to buy one. 🙂

 

That’s it.  Thanks everyone for reading.

Tammy and John Eustice

TCT7 Swim!

THS Volleyball Team!