From Afghanistan

As a young Canadian boy I always dreamt of being one of two things; a professional hockey player or a soldier. And since the NHL didn’t come calling, I chose to be the latter. I am currently serving in Afghanistan on a one year posting, with 8 months already completed.

Kabul School for the Blind

As members of the military, we sacrifice things that most normal people do not. Some of the thing we miss the most are being away from supportive families, giving up the comforts of home and “real” food. One way of dealing with these situations when feasible is to try and make a difference in the country we are deployed to. As Military Policeman we support a cause that is important to us both on the home front and overseas, the Blind Fund. Throughout the year, funds are raised to go to programs, support schools and to raise awareness.

Preparing Lunch

Arriving in Afghanistan in July 2008 the new team of Military Police on the ground took over an ongoing project with the local blind school in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. I was very fortunate to visit the school and meet with the staff as well of some of the students. When we met with the school’s principal he informed us that the last group of soldiers had purchased a Braille printer for their computer lab. Bare by our standards, their lab consists of about four used computers, which can only be used when power is available. We asked the principal what we could do that would make the most difference for the students. He took a box from the top of his old filling cabinet which contained maybe 20 sheets of Braille paper. Without the proper paper, they can not print documents.

Music Teacher with Sgt. Mallet

I became very passionate about this project so I took all the information about the paper I thought we would need and immediately upon arriving back to base sent the info by email to my wife [Michelle] back in Barrie, ON, and asked if she could find out how to get some paper for the school. Michelle got in touch with CNIB and sorted out what kind of paper the school needed and the cost.

So let’s go back a bit. Thanks to my kids, I setup my laptop with MSN and of course everyone’s favourite – Facebook - so that I would be able to keep in touch with family and friends back home. While on FB at the start of my tour, I was found by an old school friend whom I hadn’t seen in over 20 years - Nancy Loder-Leggo. Once we had gotten through all the normal catching up, I told Nancy about some of the things we do while we are deployed and about the blind school. Without hesitation Nancy asked if there was anything the Leggo family could do and the idea of Michael donating something was mentioned to raise funds. Michael got an officiating jersey signed during the NHLOA training camp by the entire officiating roster for the 2008/2009 season and had it shipped out to me so that we could raffle it off along with some other items donated by the NHL. Once the word got around as to what I had to raffle, as well as having the prize hanging in my window [under lock and key I might add] for everyone to see, interest was instantaneous and people were asking to buy tickets, some of them buying as much as $100.00 worth both for the honour of owning the jersey and knowing what the money was going towards. Tickets were bought by everyone including the Canadian Ambassador, the top Canadian General, members of the Canadian Embassy staff as well as members from other Embassies some who didn’t even know what hockey was. In a period of two months $750.00 was raised!

Students

With that money we were able to purchase 5000 pieces of Braille paper for the blind school, enough to keep them going for quite awhile. Thanks so much to the NHLOA and the NHL for their generosity and to the Leggo family for being there!

Sincerely,

Greg Mallet, Security Officer, Kabul, Afghanistan

The School's Cook

The Students

Weaving Class