Iconic American symbols were in Laurel to help honor the family of a hero July 2, as the Budweiser Clydesdales trotted up First Baptist Church Lane to deliver two Folds of Honor scholarships to children whose father was killed in action in Iraq.
"It's our most sincere honor to bring a little light into an inherently dark situation," Maj. Dan Rooney, founder of the Folds of Honor Foundation, told Andre and Tamila Lake on Tuesday, July 2. "We're grateful for the sacrifice your family has made. We're behind you and we're with you."
Rooney arrived at the Lake's house on a wagon drawn by a team of eight Clydesdales. He carried two $5,000 checks for the Lakes. Founded in 2007, the Folds of Honor Foundation provides scholarships and other opportunities for military veterans and their families, including a partnership with Budweiser that has provided more than $5 million in educational scholarships since 2010. Rooney said Folds of Honor was on track to deliver between 1,200 and 1,500 scholarships for the upcoming academic semester, including the two given to Andre, 18, and Tamila, 14.
"It's a small token of our appreciation, and ensuring that the legacy of the Lake family lives on," Rooney said. "We'll do everything we can to empower your education."
National Guard Sgt. Floyd Lake, died in the northeast region of Iraq on Jan. 20, 2007, when a helicopter he and 12 other soldiers were flying in was shot down and ambushed. He was 43.
The years since have been a "struggle," said Lake's wife, Linda, especially for Andre, who just graduated from Randolph Macon Academy in Front Royal, Va.
"He wants to join the Army," Lake said of her son. "I'm going to support him all the way. His dad did it for 17 years, and he wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps."
Andre Lake is first going to Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va., to play football and study civil engineering.
He said his father would have appreciated the gesture from the Folds of Honor, and the Clydesdales trotting up and down their street, giving his mother a ride after delivering the scholarships.
"She appreciates it, too," Andre Lake said as his mother rode past on the wagon. "She's happy; look at her. You guys did a good thing for her."
Linda Lake said her husband would have been happy, "knowing someone is out there looking out for his kids now that he's not here."
"He was very family oriented," she said. "He was all about keeping the family together."
The scholarships, and the turnout of support from the community and Folds of Honor in Laurel on Tuesday "shows that people still care," said Tamila Lake, who just finished at Berwyn Christian School in College Park and is trying to decide on a high school.
While the Lakes were touched and impressed by the Clydesdales — "Nothing like this has ever happened on our street," Andre said — Rooney said the event was really about honoring the family. As a former F16 pilot in the military campaign known as the War on Terror, Rooney said he saw "firsthand, people losing their lives and limbs" and felt "a strong calling from God to do something with my life outside of the cockpit."
Inspiration, however, doesn't always lead to action, Rooney said, and it took a trip on a commercial air flight with a soldier who was escorting his twin brother's body home to finally spur him into action.
"I couldn't ignore it anymore," he said. "My goal was to be able to provide educational opportunities to these families. We've been blessed to have millions of people come alongside us with what we're doing."
Rooney said of the more than one million dependents of service members who have been killed or disabled, 87 percent don't receive federal assistance for education.
"We're leaving families behind in epic proportions on the field of battle," he said. "We all have a debt to give back to military families like these."
Rocky Sickmann, director of military sales for Anheuser-Busch, was also on hand for the scholarship presentations. A former Marine, Sickmann was one of the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran in 1979 for 444 days, an experience he described as "very lonely."
"You think you'll be forgotten," he said to the Lakes. "We want to make sure you're not. We want to make sure people like yourself are supported until the end of time."