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Company C homecoming DVD available  Share
A DVD focused on the Aug. 2 homecoming of Illinois National Guard Company C, 1st Battalion, 178th Infantry Regiment is now available for preorder. Titled ''Homecoming in the Heartland,'' the DVD will be approximately two hours long and costs $10. ''That $10 donation goes to support area Veterans Service Organization operations,'' said Jim Ryan, commander of the American Legion in Kankakee. Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) include the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Marine Corps League and the Disabled American Veterans of Kankakee County. DVDs that are preordered will be hand-delivered before Christmas by members of the VSOs.
Hand-delivering the DVDs will help save on the cost of mailing them, Ryan said. Besides, he said, it will allow members of VSOs to personally thank people who support VSO projects. Every member of Company C will receive a complimentary copy of the DVD, Ryan said. A historic motorcade was held Aug. 2 for members of Company C, beginning in Manteno. The soldiers had been serving in Afghanistan since August of 2008. The motorcade made its way through Bourbonnais and Bradley and ended at the National Guard Armory on Indiana Avenue in Kankakee. Just over 450 motorcycles, members of the Patriot Guard Riders of Illinois, participated in the parade. Also included in the Manteno area were 15 fire trucks and 12 police cars. An estimated 45,000 people gathered along the parade route from Manteno to the National Guard Armory. The response to create this DVD has been huge, Ryan said. Prior to the homecoming, word spread by media that photos and video footage were sought to create a commemorative DVD. Radio sound bites and thank you messages phoned in to a special Web site (www.TaskForceThankful.com) were also incorporated into the DVD. Thane Moore, technical coordinator of video and academic computing at Olivet Nazarene University, and students in the media department at Olivet have been putting the DVD together. ''We probably have six to eight people helping put the DVD together, and a couple more people in our marketing department are creating the DVD label and helping with media coverage,'' Moore said. Olivet is donating time and services to put this DVD together, Moore said. So far, the group has been working with over 1,400 submitted photos from the homecoming, 13 hours of film footage and an abundance of voice mail messages and radio sound bites, Moore said. Currently, the DVDs can only be ordered online at www.TaskForceThankful.com. This will provide an idea of how many copies of the DVD will need to be made for future over-the-counter sales. ''We will have a limited number of copies of the DVD for over-the-counter sales before Christmas,'' Ryan said. After Christmas, the DVDs will be available for sale at various area locations. Those locations will be determined soon. Tracy Ahrens is a reporter for Russell Publications.
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