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Happily home for Christmas

With both happiness and sadness, Aaron Read returned to Parkersburg this month from military duty in the Middle East.

Read, a combat veteran serving as an engineer with Special Forces, flew home to attend the funeral of his brother Isaac, who passed away on Dec. 6. Isaac, who was 34, died of a heart attack, Aaron said.

Read is happy to be spending the Christmas holiday with his wife, Carrie, and their four children before heading back to his next military mission on Monday. Read is a member of Charlie Company, No. 2/19th Special Forces group with the West Virginia Army National Guard out of Kingwood, W.Va.

Read attended a recent Parkersburg City Council meeting to talk with his former colleagues. Read had served on City Council from District 7 from December 2014 until this past July, when he resigned because of military obligations.

Although he misses being on City Council, Read said his resignation was the right thing to do because of his deployment “7,000 miles away.” Read has served in 11 countries, including Afghanistan and Algeria, since joining the U.S. Army 18 years ago.

Read appreciates the “great support from the people and the Parkersburg community” his family has received since he began serving in the military. “We love the area,” he said.

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A year’s worth of work by Wood County native Brett Dulaney culminates today with the St. Petersburg Bowl in Florida.

Dulaney, a 1991 graduate of Parkersburg High School, is executive director of the St. Petersburg Bowl, which pits Marshall University against the University of Connecticut at 11 a.m. at Tropicana Field.

I got a chance to talk to Dulaney Wednesday as the two football teams and staff enjoyed a day at Busch Gardens in Tampa. The temperature was 85 degrees and sunny with no rain in sight.

Dulaney, 42, leads a staff of three in getting sponsorships and generating other revenue for the bowl game, now in its eighth year. A week of fun activities for the teams and fans precedes the football game.

Dulaney expects a crowd of 20,000-21,000 today to watch Marshall (9-3) face the University of Connecticut (6-6). Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, can seat 28,000 for football and 40,000 for baseball.

“It’s a loud venue … fun and intimate,” Dulaney, who lives in Ozona, Fla., said of Tropicana Field. His parents, Rick and Susan, also live in Florida.

Dulaney worked for ISP Sports in sales and marketing covering football, basketball and baseball at the University of South Florida. He got his degree in marketing/golf management from Mississippi State University.

Dulaney said he begins working on next year’s bowl game after Christmas.

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Some of the Christmas parties around town this year:

* Jeff DePuy of Williamstown was honored during Perry & Associates, Certified Public Accountants’ Christmas party on Dec. 19 at the Parkersburg Country Club. DePuy, 59, a partner in the firm, has worked at Perry for 39 years, since May 1976, when the company was Randall Perry Public Accountant, operating out of the seventh floor of the Dime Bank building in Marietta. DePuy received a new wristband for an old watch he owned and a new watch from company President Jodey Altier. DePuy said he enjoys working with the company’s clients. About 102 people attended the Christmas party, with the children enjoying a visit from Santa Claus.

* About 150 people stopped by Tom Joyce’s Christmas party last Saturday at the 19th Street Country Club in Parkersburg. Joyce was joined by his golfing and fishing buddies, co-workers and his brother Tim of Dillon, Colo., who was attending for the first time. “It is my gift to my friends,” Joyce said. Dressed as Santa Claus, Joyce visited the homes of about 20 friends on Wednesday and Thursday to pass out gifts to their children.

* The Julia-Ann Square Historic District Association enjoyed a Christmas Dinner-Annual Meeting at Carole Hanlon’s Tall Oaks Event Center, 1703 20th St. in Parkersburg. Residents brought the food (these people are great cooks) that was displayed on a beautifully decorated serving table; drinks were provided in another lovely room. “It was truly a winter wonderland with life-size Victorian carolers singing the season’s best sounds,” according to Judy Smith. The following new officers were elected: President, Judy Smith; Vice President, Julie DeKlavon; Treasurer, Kathryn Harris; Recording Secretary, Delores Bragg, and Corresponding Secretary, Brenda Critzer. The Riverview Cemetery Preservation Project continues to be the group’s mission.

* Jason Wyers, owner of DownTown Specialty Bakery on Market Street in Parkersburg, provided the food, and some Christmas music at the piano, for Frieda Owen’s Christmas party on Dec. 19 at her Parkersburg home. Owen said her neighbors in Woodland Park, teachers and Presbyterians enjoyed Wyers’ mini-cupcakes, cheese balls, mini-pepperoni rolls, cookies, deep-fried green beans and caramelized bacon. Singer Sierra Ferrell, Owen’s granddaughter, sang at the party.

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