Warrior Wishes Come True In Miami!
As most of you know, my dad is not one to complain about overnight bus rides… but I’m sure you can imagine how exhausted he was after a 15 hour ride on a bus, after 2 straight overnight busses. Thankfully he did catch up on some sleep, and was able to get a little work done too.
So after making Warrior Wishes come true at the Braves game Friday night, he left Atlanta at 9pm and made stops in Orlando & Fort Lauderdale before finally arriving in Miami Saturday afternoon.
Just a few hours later, he met up with Lorraine Pino and her husband at 2pm to host them at the Marlins game in the honor of Army SFC Larry Vaquero. Lorraine is the Gold Star sister of SFC Vaquero and their family was nominated by the Army Survivor Outreach Services.
SFC LARRY VAQUERO
In Lorraine’s words ” (Larry was) The typical “big” brother. (He) watched and took care of all us. He was the oldest of all of us. I am number 6 of 7 and I remember that he was always in the army. I used to think he was born into the army. He was always on your or just on the move. Larry was a Persian gulf vet. He was married and had 2 beautiful kids! He had a love for retiring old Volkswagens. We really miss him dearly.
The Batting Cage provided lunch for everyone and it almost seemed as if Lorraine and her husband Paul were the ONLY Marlins fans in the entire bar full of 50 plus people! The first place Cubs were in town and their fans came in full force.
The PreGame meal is one of our favorite and integral parts of our mission because it gives everyone chance to get to know each other & sets the tone for the entire day. We talked weather, a little politics and of course, about her hero brother, SFC Vaquero. Lorraine informed us that her other brother, Ian, is also a military wounded veteran. We are hoping to get him out to one of our Warrior Wishes Experiences in near future.
The Batting Cage is right across from the stadium, so with full stomachs, we headed over in the 90 plus degree heat to pick up our tickets. Not only in the restaurant, but all around the stadium there seemed to be more Cub fans than Marlins fans. Must be all the people who migrated from Chicago to get out of the bad weather… Today was one of those days you were glad your were In nice air conditioned environment of Marlins Park, as temperatures were pushing 95 degrees all day.
The Cubs jumped out to an early lead in this one 4-1 , but Marlins got 2 in the 4th, then 4 in the 5th and never looked back. They beat the first place Cubs 9-6. Giancarlo Stanton hot bat and Justin Bour’s Home run led the way. The Cubs have now lost 4 of their last 5 games, but still lead division by 9.
W’D like to thank The Batting Cage for the Pre Game meal and to New Era Cap for Marlins caps. But most importantly THANK YOU to our fallen hero SFC Larry Vaquero, and his family, for their service and sacrifices to our country.
TOGETHER WE MAKE WARRIOR WISHES COME TRUE!
My dad is heading to the airport, no he’s not flying anywhere, he’s going to spend the night… He will be back at Marlins Park in the morning to host a couple Gold Star families. Stay tuned for more details.
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