If you are free Sunday night....Regarding Matt Maupin

Hi Guys...

Just wanted to pop in and share this info...we have some pretty patriotic people here and if any of you could make this event to make it a large one to show support for Matt Maupin's family that would be great!

Please spread the word about this....

Take care,
TD

http://www.kypost.com/2005/01/06/maup010605.html

Bell to toll for missing soldier

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By Courtney Kinney
Post staff reporter

The World Peace Bell in Newport will toll nine times on Sunday night -- once for each month Army Sgt. Matt Maupin has been missing in Iraq.
A vigil, which organizers call "Lighting the Way Home," is planned at the bell site at 425 York Street in Newport at 6 p.m. The bell is expected to toll around 7:30 p.m.

Sunday marks nine months since the 20-year-old from Batavia in Clermont County, Ohio was taken hostage after his convoy was attacked west of Baghdad April 9.

He is the only Army soldier currently listed as captured in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"For us to show our support to this family is the least we can do," said Debbie Kayse, director of the World Peace Bell Center, which along with Maupin's family is sponsoring the vigil.

"They are incredible people."

About a week after his capture, a video of a somber-looking Maupin surfaced in which he was surrounded by five masked men. Nothing conclusive has been seen since.

In June, Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera aired a dark, grainy video of a man they identified as Maupin being shot in the head.

U.S. officials have said they cannot determine anything conclusively from the video.

His family has not given up hope, holding monthly vigils for Maupin since his capture. This is the first monthly vigil to be held in Northern Kentucky, Kayse said.

The bell site, however, has been deemed Northern Kentucky's Yellow Ribbon Support Center site -- a place where items for soldiers can be dropped off and care packages are assembled. Each care package is sent to a specific soldier, and each includes a picture of Maupin and a note from his family asking the soldiers to help find him.

The Yellow Ribbon Support Center project was started by Maupin's family.

Friends and family of Maupin will speak at the vigil, which is open to the public.

Speakers include his mother, Carolyn Maupin, and Ron Hartman, commander of the American Legion Post 72, a good friend of the Maupins and the one who swore in Matt Maupin as a soldier.

At 7:30 p.m., there will be a moment of silence; the bell will toll nine times.

Then it will swing and ring in honor of Maupin.

"This is going to be a very touching, emotional (event)," Kayse said.