DaytonDailyNews.com

site web

BELLBROOK — Steve Stolly has flown hundreds of thousands of miles over much of the globe for the Air Force, but it was a small patch of grass here in Bellbrook that brought him great joy Saturday, June 7.

In the span of a few hours, Stolly's backyard on East Sudbury Court was transformed from a dirt patch to a lush, green lawn thanks to Buckeye EcoCare, Green Velvet Sod Farms and a program called Green Care for Troops, which arranges free lawn and landscape services for military families.

"It's been a real blessing that (Mark Grunkemeyer and Buckeye EcoCare) would come out and do this for us," Stolly said. "I can't even describe it; this is like a miracle. I had no idea that it could look like this."

It's also a blessing for Stolly to be home with his wife, Erin, and young children, Conor and Abby. Stolly said he did eight deployments from 1996 to 2006, flying missions into places such as Bosnia, Kosovo, Kenya and Tanzania.

He flew 14-hour missions in the Iraq war, came home briefly, then found himself in a constant four-months-on, four-months-off deployment cycle. He eventually landed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in September 2007, and decided to move to the reserves.

"My family had had enough at that point," he said. "I had missed half of my son's life and more than half of my daughter's life."

He's now working full time as a reservist, "so I could continue my career and serve, and at the same time be where we want," Stolly said. "We're from Ohio and we love it here." But they didn't love their backyard.

The Stollys called Buckeye EcoCare, and when owner Mark Grunkemeyer heard of the situation, he brought up the Green Care for Troops program.

"When I first priced the project, I came home and had to do a little soul-searching," Grunkemeyer said. "This gentleman gave part of his life to protect our country; the least I can do is put in a lawn for him."

So on Saturday morning, in a light rain, Green Velvet donated and delivered the sod, and a dozen volunteers from Buckeye EcoCare tore up the old grass, installed the new sod and seeded around it.

"This is a great welcome home for us," Erin Stolly said. "We're absolutely thrilled."

When the job was finally finished, Conor ran out onto the grass, baseball bat in hand, as Buckeye employees pitched him tennis balls.

"He's got a little part of the yard that's just his," Steve Stolly said. "He has to call Mark and let him know how it's doing. He put the dirt in, he spread it, he put the seeds in, and he's got to water it himself."

Said Grunkemeyer: "Good things happen to good people. It was an easy decision."

Vote for this story!