WASHINGTON - Thirty-five Minnesota soldiers who returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan in the past year were among nearly 300 golfers who participated in the 2nd Annual Bryan McDonough American Heroes Golf Classic last month at Oak Glen Golf Course in Stillwater, Minn.
"We wanted to raise funds to help the families of wounded and fallen soldiers," said Tom McDonough, director of the Bryan McDonough Military Heroes Foundation and father of Bryan McDonough, a Minnesota Army National Guardsman who was killed in Iraq on Dec. 2, 2006. "This event gives us plenty of exposure and raises a fair amount of money."
The exposure the tournament provides helps to raise funds from other sources, McDonough said. "In the past, we have provided a number of things ranging from cash grants to a washer and dryer for one military family and [an] adjustable bed for another," he said. "We also provided a hand-pedaled recumbent bicycle for another soldier who lost the use of a leg."
McDonough added that the golf classic's overall goal is to support soldiers adjusting to life with the physical and psychological wounds of war. In the upcoming month, the Bryan McDonough Military Heroes Foundation will help a soldier remodel his home and provide an all-terrain vehicle for another soldier who likes to hunt but lost his foot.
The Bryan McDonough Military Heroes Foundation, a home-front group of the Defense Department's America Supports You program, is an organization supporting Minnesota servicemen and women returning from deployments around the world.
"Bryan will never be forgotten by all those who were honored to have known him," McDonough said. "His legacy will live on in many ways, including the Bryan McDonough American Heroes Golf Classic."