Good sports for troops
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Courtesy of Ganatos Family
Army Sgt. Michael "Jed" Ganatos poses in Afghanistan with a baseball bat he and his unit customized for the owner of a Palatine sports store. It's wood-burned with a nail to show the insignia for his 173d Airborne Brigade.
What started as a simple collection of sports equipment at one Palatine business has turned into so much more.
On Aug. 21, Sports Scene owner Steve Biro placed a collection box in his store on Northwest Highway after being contacted by Rolling Meadows mom Sherrie Ganatos. Her son Jed is in the Army, stationed in Afghanistan.
So far, more than $400 in cash has been donated and four giant boxes packed with baseballs, catchers' gear, basketballs, mitts and other equipment has been shipped to soldiers.
Here are some examples of how this gesture of kindness prompted so many others.
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A client at the CPA firm where Jed's mother works was visiting the office. He'd read the story in the Daily Herald, and when he found out it was her son who inspired the sporting goods drive, handed over $100 on the spot.
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On the morning the news hit about the collection, an older man came to the store. He took out a baseball mitt from a shopping bag he brought in and said, "I have something for the troops."
Turns out it was signed by Mel Ott, a Hall-of-Famer who retired in the 1940s.
"He gave us his treasure. I had goose bumps," Biro said.
They didn't send that piece overseas, and instead it now sits in a clear box above the collection site.
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The Sports Scene owner was at a picnic in Springfield for Brother James Court, a group for developmentally disabled. A woman from Mundelein came up to him, said what he's doing is so great and gave $50.
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Bags of donations have been dropped off from the Palatine Baseball Association and the Arlington Heights Youth Athletic Association.
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Schools in Park Ridge and Barrington have called, wanting to contribute to the case for a civics project.
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More than 80 percent of the people coming to drop off equipment are older men, many of them war veterans.
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A Palatine resident came into the store but said he didn't have anything to donate. He left, came back 30 minutes later and was carrying brand new soccer balls, footballs and Frisbees he'd just bought.