Spec. 4 Andrew Wilson, here with parents Cliff and Kim Wilson, returns home Tuesday.

Volunteers will gather today, Saturday to tie ribbons
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
Support and plans for Spec. 4 Andrew Wilson, the young U.S. Army soldier who is returning to a hero’s welcome on Tuesday, continue to grow.

The Brentwood Academy community is hosting a special fundraiser tonight at The Perch, 117 Franklin Road, in Brentwood House shopping center. The songwriter’s night and silent auction is open to all. Live performances are planned by Greg Pope, Dana Perdue and John Wiggins.

The event begins at 5 p.m. Admission is $10 per person and includes one beverage of choice. All proceeds will be donated to The Andrew Wilson Fund at Regions Bank. Wilson graduated from BA in 2007.

Volunteers will gather today and Saturday at the Tower Park parking lot on Heritage Drive to start tying yellow ribbons on trees along Franklin, Concord and Sunset roads. Wilson, wounded in Afghanistan in October, is returning to Brentwood for the first time since returning to the states and Walter Reed rehab hospital in Bethesda, Md. He will be escorted south on Franklin Road to Concord Road then Sunset by Brentwood Police officers and members of the Patriot Riders.

The motorcade is expected to begin from the Murray Ohio building parking lot at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Brentwood Police Chief Ricky Watson is encouraging everyone in the city to line the route to great Wilson. Already the Brentwood United Methodist Church, Brentwood Baptist Church, Fellowship Bible Church and the Brentwood YMCA have offered their parking lots for those who want to take part, he said.

Becky Gregory, a longtime Brentwood resident who took it upon herself to raise funds and coordinate last year’s yellow ribbon campaign to welcome young Brentwood Marine Ben Maenza home stepped up again  to lead the ribbon effort for Wilson.

Wilson, like Maenza almost exactly a year previously, lost both of his legs to an IED blast while on patrol in Afghanistan.

Gregory spent part of last weekend breaking down the motorcade route into segments in order to have pre-determined assignments ready for those who show up to help put them out. Today’s effort begins at 2:30 p.m.; on Saturday anyone who wants to help should be at the parking lot at 9:30 a.m.

"If it is a downpour, we will do it all on Saturday. If it is just a light rain we will start tomorrow," Gregory said Thursday night. "Many of the volunteers are high school kids who play sports in the rain all the time. Anyone who would rather wait until Saturday if the weather isn't fitting, I totally understand."