GIVING THANKS
Young Americans too often come back from foreign wars with life-changing wounds. As we carry on with our lives, they struggle for the rest of theirs.
To help ease that struggle, the Fairfield Ludlowe High School boys & girls lacrosse programs are hosting the 18th Annual Sticks for Soldiers™ Thanksgiving Lacrosse Classic on Saturday November 30, 2024.
PLEASE JOIN US IN RAISING FUNDS AND AWARENESS FOR THESE HEROIC AMERICANS.
In 2023, 32 boys and girls teams that included over 500 high school athletes raised over $60,000. In 17 years, over $1.2 million has been donated locally to wounded servicemen and their families.
THE POWER OF THIS TOURNAMENT GOES WELL BEYOND MUCH-NEEDED FINANCIAL SUPPORT.
It also raises awareness. All of us tend to forget. For high school athletes, the chance to compete and raise money for wounded men and women just a few years older than themselves is unforgettable.
PLEASE HELP US GIVE THANKS. To men and women who changed their lives to protect ours.
2024 HONOREE
U.S. MARINE CPL (RET) KELSEE LAINHART
Kelsee Lainhart made the decision to join the Marine Corps just a month after her seventeenth birthday, soon after beginning her senior year of high school. Curious about careers in the FBI, maybe even the CIA, believing she’d pursue one or the other as a lifetime profession, she knew military experience and a college degree would help pave the way. “I can accomplish both in the Marine Corps,” she told her parents, “It will give me a leg up once I’m ready to try to get into one of those agencies—after I finish my enlistment. And, I can go to college while I’m in the Corps.”
Her parents had reservations. Her father, a former Marine knew she could find herself in harm’s way. Iraq, Afghanistan. Syria; there was a good chance she’d find herself deployed. Reluctantly, they agreed.
In June of 2019, almost immediately following graduation from small town, East Central High School, in Lawrenceburg, Indiana (population around 5000), Kelsee left for boot camp. She celebrated her eighteenth birthday at Parris Island. By November, her mother and father, other family too, her brother Gage and younger sister Kaci, all proud (Kelsee had graduated from boot camp), drove the ten hours from Indiana to Parris Island. Marine Private First Class, Kelsee Lainhart, marched across the parade ground, eyes right as Platoon 4042 passed in front of the reviewing stand and her family.
By summer 2020, her unit began training for deployment. Kelsee, already a lance corporal, was growing into her job as an intelligence specialist, a military role more challenging than she’d initially expected; lives depended upon good intel. She learned how to gather information — terrain assessments, area demographics, language, customs, culture, the likelihood of hostile activity or risk, weather — all the intelligence Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) need if and when they might be called on to respond to a situation with boots on the ground — anywhere in the world and at a minute’s notice.
DONATE
WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE,
AND YOU CAN HELP.
This is an all-volunteer effort. If you are interested in additional information, to donate, become a sponsor, volunteer, or to secure a team spot in the next tournament, please contact Bob Vitale, President and Event Chairman at sticksforsoldiers@gmail.com.
Donations may be sent to:
Sticks for Soldiers, Inc.
c/o Treasurer
PO Box 475
Fairfield, CT 06824-0475
Checks made payable to:
Sticks for Soldiers, Inc.
Memo note: 2024 S4S
Sticks for Soldiers, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization recognized by the IRS.
EIN #: 46-0962202
STAY CONNECTED
DONORS & SPONSORS
Sticks For Soldiers is a non-profit charity lacrosse tournament held in Fairfield, CT to raise money for wounded troops. The mission of the tournament is to provide support and give thanks to the service men and women who put their lives on the line and sacrificed for our country, while raising awareness among high school athletes to the sacrifices being made by people just a few years older than they are. The event and related fund-raising efforts has now raised over $1,200,000 in 17 years.