The Department of Leisure and Sport Management welcomed home one of its own Friday as faculty, students and guests gathered in Holland House for Johnathan Harvey ’09, who returned to North Carolina last month from a four-month deployment to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The Raleigh native plans to continue his studies and graduate in May. He said his training and experience serving overseas have led to three job offers he must now consider, which he’ll weigh against reenlisting with the Air Force Reserves.
Should he stay with his military unit, Harvey will redeploy in May 2010. While in Afghanistan he was responsible for loading and unloading mail and care packages for soldiers. He unloaded and loaded nearly a half million pounds of mail during his four and a half months tour.
“This means a lot,” Harvey said of the event. “It shows how close a group Elon is to everyone and it shows that people care what I do, and what we do as a military.”
The afternoon reception, organized by assistant professor Anne Marx, featured a cake and light snacks. It gave Harvey an opportunity to present the department with a specially made flag used by Air Force wings to identity themselves.
Faculty at the reception were touched by the gesture.
“We felt it appropriate that we recognize one of our students who served abroad and came home safe and sound,” said Jim Drummond, a professor and chair of the Department of Leisure and Sport Management. “You can tell he has a really unique personality, which made it a lot easier for us.”