.Fore! Students collect golf balls for US soldiers in Iraq
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Students at a Washington high school have collected thousands of golf balls for US soldiers in Iraq, who reportedly use a desert driving range to unwind, a local television station reported Thursday.
Pupils at Gonzaga College High School have collected around 14,000 golf balls for the troops in the "Balls for Baghdad" project launched earlier this year by physics teacher and golf coach, Rob Theriaque, a report on WJLA television said.
According to WJLA, US troops in Iraq like to unwind by teeing off, but there is a constant need for new balls: because it is too dangerous for the soldiers to recover the balls once they are hit hundreds of yards (meters) out into the Iraqi desert, the soldiers can only use each golf ball once.
The problem the Gonzaga students face now is how to get the balls to Iraq: the balls collected so far weigh 1,000 pounds (around 450 kilos), and shipping them would cost 70 dollars per box of 400 balls, according to WJLA.
Comments posted on the WJLA website praised the students' "admirable but odd" initiative, but called it "misguided."
Another comment-poster urged the students to sell the golf balls on e-Bay and send the soldiers money.
"What are they going to do with the balls? Play the Country Club of Fallujah? The Links of Anbar Province?" the poster wondered.
AFP
Pupils at Gonzaga College High School have collected around 14,000 golf balls for the troops in the "Balls for Baghdad" project launched earlier this year by physics teacher and golf coach, Rob Theriaque, a report on WJLA television said.
According to WJLA, US troops in Iraq like to unwind by teeing off, but there is a constant need for new balls: because it is too dangerous for the soldiers to recover the balls once they are hit hundreds of yards (meters) out into the Iraqi desert, the soldiers can only use each golf ball once.
The problem the Gonzaga students face now is how to get the balls to Iraq: the balls collected so far weigh 1,000 pounds (around 450 kilos), and shipping them would cost 70 dollars per box of 400 balls, according to WJLA.
Comments posted on the WJLA website praised the students' "admirable but odd" initiative, but called it "misguided."
Another comment-poster urged the students to sell the golf balls on e-Bay and send the soldiers money.
"What are they going to do with the balls? Play the Country Club of Fallujah? The Links of Anbar Province?" the poster wondered.
AFP
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