Family links to Army son

The organizations plan to partner more in the future.

By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

BOARDMAN — Linda and Ron Simon of Columbiana woke up Thursday thinking about seeing their 23-year-old son, serving in Iraq, and the network of programs making it possible.

Matthew Simon has been stationed with the U.S. Army in Iraq for two months and had spoken to his family once in that time.

The Simons, along with their 26-year-old son, Scott, and 21-year-old daughter, Lisa, made their way to the Mahoning County Educational Service Center on Market Street before 9 a.m. for a video conference call with Matthew.

The service center, in conjunction with the Freedom Calls Foundation, an organization dedicated to keeping soldiers in touch with their families free of charge, sponsored a video conference call for the Simon family.

Cathy Sanor, technical director for MCESC, said the center is offering the use of its video equipment to families who would like to video conference with a family member serving in Iraq. Freedom Calls operates the satellite link that makes the call possible.

Sanor said five families had been scheduled to use the video link service Thursday, but four of those families could not use the system because their family member was on assignment in Iraq and not available.

The Simons would be the only family to conference, but fate would not allow things to go smoothly.

Ten minutes before the family was supposed to be speaking with Matthew, power to the MCESC Internet setup went down — making the video equipment useless until the system was brought back on line.

Sanor and her colleagues rushed the family to another facility three miles away in Canfield.

Sanor said it’s important that the family use the system as close to the scheduled time as possible. Each family on the Freedom Calls network gets a set half-hour to use the system.

After several minutes of adjusting the system at the Canfield location, Matthew appeared on one of the two large screen televisions in front of his family. The first comments about a newly grown beard and change in hairstyle were heard before the family was locked away in private to speak with Matthew for an hour — well over the normal half-hour time limit.

“When they finally made the connection it was wonderful,” said Linda Simon, still wiping tears from her eyes after the experience. “You always wonder about people over there, but just to see him and see that he is OK was a reassurance.”

Sanor said the organizations working together helped create a “Christmas miracle” for the Simons, but it’s not over.

“This was our first opportunity to participate, but we do want to do this on an as-requested basis. Those interested would just need to contact our offices,” she said.

Sanor said her office will need at least a week’s notice to coordinate a conference with Freedom Calls.

Members of the Simon family plan to use the service again, but that largely depends on if Freedom Calls Foundation finds enough funding to keep operating the site. John Harlow, executive director of Freedom Calls, said funding the foundation is a daily challenge.

“We are having a tough time financially. We do this only on contributions, and it takes tens of thousands of dollars a month to provide this service,” he said. “We really need corporate support.”

For the Simons, all the money is worth seeing their son while he is serving thousands of miles away.

“He looks good,” said Ron Simon. “It’s not as good as having him home, but he looks good.”

jgoodwin@vindy.com