Just a few of the many volunteers who gathered at Tower Park parking lot Saturday to help with the yellow ribbon campaign.

All encouraged to turn out to welcome Wilson home
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
More than 230 volunteers of all ages turned out Friday and Saturday to help hang over 1150 ribbons were in a seven-mile stretch encompassing Franklin, Concord and Sunset roads. The yellow ribbon campaign is a forerunner to today's return of a Brentwood wounded warrior.

It’s anticipated that Spec. 4 Andrew Wilson, 25, a Brentwood Academy graduate and member of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division based in Ft. Drum, N.Y., will be greeted by hundreds if not thousands of well-wishers when a motorcade escorts him from the Murray Ohio building on Franklin Road to his family’s Bonbrook home off of Sunset. Wilson  is coming home for the first time since losing both of his legs while on patrol in Afghanistan in October.

Wilson is rehabbing at the new Walter Reed  Hospital in Bethesda, Md.

Among those helping with the weekend’s ribbon effort were Jama and Mike Maenza, whose son Ben received a similar welcome home almost exactly a year ago. Like Andrew, Ben lost both legs after an IED blast.

“It truly was a community effort,” said Becky Gregory, who spearheaded the ribbon efforts for both of the young servicemen and said it warmed her heart to see the Maenzas there helping.

“We had so many volunteers I had to turn some away as the response was so incredible,” Gregory said. “To be the last weekend before Christmas and have that many people volunteer to give up a couple of hours says so much.

“It goes to prove that Brentwood citizens have a giving heart and this continues to be a wonderful place in which to live.”

Also this weekend, volunteers associated with Brentwood Academy put together a Friday night music benefit at The Perch coffee house and crepery that raised $800 for The Andrew Wilson Fund. A silent auction, which continued through Sunday, had raised an additional $800 by Saturday.

“We are excited that so many people came out to support him and glad he will be home on Tuesday,” said John Kressaty, with his wife Heather, owns The Perch. He anticipates making a deposit of at least $1800 to the fund today to help pay for additional items needed to outfit Andrew’s home.

Here’s the expected timeline for Andrew’s Tuesday homecoming. Everyone is invited to turn out to line the route, rain or shine.  Participants are encouraged to bring American flags or signs of support to wave.

11:30 a.m. (or as soon thereafter that Andrew and his father arrive in Brentwood via limo from Nashville International Airport) – A motorcade that will include an escort by Brentwood Police officers and members of the Patriot Riders motorcycle brigade will leave the Murray Ohio building’s parking lot just south of Church Street and head south on Franklin Road.

The motorcade will turn left on Concord and continue east to Sunset Road, just past the Governors Club development.

It will turn left onto Sunset and into the Bonbrook subdivision and continue to the Wilson’s home where a private homecoming with friends and family and representatives of those who have helped adapt the home in recent weeks is expected.

Parking: In addition to commercial parking lots in downtown Brentwood, the Brentwood United Methodist Church, Brentwood Baptist Church, Fellowship Bible Church, and the Brentwood YMCA are offering their lots for well-wishers to park.

Several HOAs of subdivisions along the route are encouraging their residents to come out to greet the motorcade.