Vol. 2 No. 12
Free to Every Home and Business Every Month
June 1, 2012
Moving On and Staying Strong A Way to Remember Matt Brown Looks forward to College and a Full Life BY KIERSTEN BARRY
before graduation.
Fifteen years ago a three yearold boy toddled on ice skates for the first time. He hated skating, hated everything about it. Flash forward three years, the same little boy, now six, decided to try his hand at skating one more time. This time, he was in love.
Looking forward to summer, Matt added “It is also going to be tough, because we’re all going
“I could not get enough of it. It is such a fun sport to watch and to play,” 18 year-old Matt Brown said from his childhood bedroom as he spoke of goals, post-graduation summer plans and his high school career.
away … It is close enough to home for Mom and Dad or if I want a home cooked meal, but far enough that I can have my space,” says Brown. Though Matt experienced a moment that changed the course of his life, a moment many would allow to define them, to accept a life using a wheelchair, Matt continues to climb and conquer each new day, journeying closer to the “life I once knew,” as he puts it.
Matt Brown will look forward to the start of his adult life at Stonehill College in the fall. The 18-year-old has a lot to look forward to. Wherever life takes him, he vows to always call Norwood home. Photo courtesy of Beaumont Photography.
Matt entered Norwood High School like many freshman. The 14-year-old felt a mixture of eager anticipation, nervous excitement and a little bit of “Peter Pan” as he first walked into “the old school on the hill.” “It went by in the blink of an eye,” Matt said a few short weeks
BY J.D. O’GARA
off to different schools,” Matt said, of his incredible support network of friends. Matt will live at Stonehill College, in Easton, in the fall. “It is perfect because Stonehill is only about fifteen minutes
Although Matt is not playing, hockey, sports and everything you would expect of a graduating senior still encompass this teenager’s
life. “The prom was great. It was great to see everyone. All the girls looked great, and even the men shaped up pretty good. It was a great night to see everyone, espe-
MATT BROWN continued on page 5
He liked to read, says his father. Before he was Army Specialist Keith D. Benson, the combat medic otherwise who had earned the nickname “Doc Benson” from his brothers in arms, he was Keith Benson, brother of Kyle, son of David and Kathleen, who enjoyed music and collecting The Punisher series comic books.
where he was trained as a combat medic. “I think he just wanted to help people. He was always that way,” says Benson, who was humbled to come
And he grew up at 61 Gay Street, in Norwood. Now, a memorial stands across the street from where this boy grew up, at the corner of Joy and Gay Streets, U.S. Army SPC Keith D. Benson will have a permadedicated on Memo- nent memorial near his childhood home at the rial Day to the boy corner of Joy and Gay streets. who found his way to to a deeper understanding of the man manhood. his son had become when he learned “It was his intent, in civilian life, to of Keith’s accomplishments in the become an EMT,” says his father, military – he was posthumously David Benson. “After high school, awarded a commendation for valor – he went to work, but not in that field. and how he had been willing to reach Eventually he just felt the quickest out to those who needed assistance. and best way to acquire the medical “Sometimes you don’t learn things skills required was to go into the milabout your own child until events like itary, so after basic training, he went REMEMBER to Fort Sam Houston, in Texas, continued on page 5
G
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