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Yay for cornhole!
:beer::beer::beer:
READING - Soldiers in Iraq will get a taste of Cincinnati when they receive 10 cornhole sets made by a Reading soldier's family and painted by students.
Army Spc. 4 Shannon Bucksath, a 1990 Reading High School graduate, left Oct. 13 for Iraq. He's stationed at Camp Navistar on the Iraq-Kuwait border, where he's part of the 383rd Movement Control Team that moves convoys.
"We had a going-away party for him and we were playing cornhole," said his dad, Donald Bucksath. "He really liked playing cornhole."
Bucksath decided to make sure his son could continue to share the fun with other soldiers. He and another son, Garrett, a Reading High School junior, decided to start building cornhole sets Nov. 1 so the soldiers would have something to do in their spare time.
Thinking Reading school children might want to help, Bucksath approached the art teachers at Hilltop Elementary and Reading High School about having students paint the sets. Six sets went to Hilltop and four sets went to the high school - one set for each grade.
"They thought it was cool," said Marla Thomas, Hilltop art teacher. "I told them I had seen a clip on national news about what the soldiers do in their spare time. It got them thinking in another vein."
First- and second-graders at Hilltop are painting hearts on their set; third- and fourth-graders are painting handprints, fifth-graders are completing a collage of photos to remind soldiers of places like Mount Rushmore, the Liberty Bell and Capitol building; and sixth-graders designed a stylized flag.
Students will also write cards and letters to be included with the sets.
Jeffrey Stewart, who's 10 and a fifth-grader, drew a blue star decorated with red dots. "I think it's a good project for the soldiers," he said. "It shows people still care about the soldiers, and we're doing this to support them."
Kelsey Huber worked on a red-gold-and-blue star. "We're doing this because you know how they have free time and it's really boring for them sometimes," the 10-year-old fifth-grader said. "We're doing this to show them we care about them and so they have activities."
Jimmy Toledo painted a similar star. He added the words, "You rock," and also drew a Bengals helmet and football, and wrote the team record at the time, "11 in 3. Oh yeah!"
"They're getting a little news from home," Thomas said with a smile.
Meanwhile, Bucksath; his wife; his daughter, Madelyn, an eighth-grader at Reading; and his three sisters will make 80 beanbags - eight to a set.
Cornhole players take turns pitching small bags filled with corn or beans at a raised platform with a hole in the far end. A corn bag in the hole scores 3 points, while one of the platform scores 1 point. Play continues until a player reaches a score of 21. Some claim cornhole originated in Cincinnati, but whether it was invented here or not, the community has embraced the game as its own.
The sets for the soldiers will be shipped this month for free through a Yellow Ribbon Center in Kentucky, Bucksath said. Once the sets arrive, Shannon Bucksath will keep one set for his unit and distribute the rest to other units.
One set will include the handprint of Elliott Bucksath, Shannon's little brother.
"When the soldiers have time off, they can play these games," said Elliott, a 9-year-old Hilltop fourth-grader. "When we send letters to them, they'll maybe send letters back."
Yay for cornhole!
:beer::beer::beer:
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