By Kyle Fitzsimmons
Review Staff Intern
When Barbara Ealy and her family released balloons into the sky to commemorate the life of a loved one who lost his life fighting in Iraq, they had no idea who they would reach.
That is until the next evening when they received a phone call from a woman roughly 300 miles away in Buffalo, New York.
Marine Staff Sgt. Raymond Plouhar of Lake Orion was killed by a roadside bomb in the Anbar Province of Iraq on June 26, 2006. He had just 38 days left to serve.
Each year since Raymond’s death, his family has ceremoniously released balloons from their lakefront property in Lake Orion on his May 26 birthday.
This was the first year they attached their phone number and name with a picture and death notice of Raymond and the response was immediate.
‘We sent them off on his birthday, the same day as Memorial Day, and the next day we got a call,? said Ealy, Raymond’s aunt.
That call was from Marcy Ramsdell of Buffalo. She had been working on her horse farm when she noticed a cluster of red, white and blue balloons and checked it out.
A Marine herself, Ramsdell picked up the phone and dialed Ealy when she discovered what the balloons were about.
‘She was really impressed with it,? Ealy said. ‘We were glad to hear from her.?
Being a fellow Marine wasn’t the only connection Ramsdell shared with Raymond.
Ramsdell works on a horse farm, and Raymond’s unit was known as the black horse platoon.
‘It was really weird to hear that,? Ealy said.
Ramsdell’s wasn’t the only phone call Ealy received on behalf of the balloons.
About a week later, a second woman called after spotting the balloons stuck on some rocks while walking along the beach with her daughter.
‘She called just to let us know she was saying a prayer,? Ealy said.
After the success of this year’s balloon send-off, Ealy said the family plans on continuing the tradition for years to come and they are not opposed to tinkering with it.
‘We plan on doing whatever we can come up with,? she said. ‘We got a lot of young people in the family still and they come up with some really novel ideas.?