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Eldersville to honor ill Arkansas boy at Memorial Day commemoration

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Diane Huggins, founder of Covering the Blue, holds the blanket she crocheted for Louie at her home in Eldersville.

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Diane Huggins, founder of Covering the Blue, holds the blanket she crocheted for Louie at her home in Eldersville.

Louie Schneider has almost certainly never set foot in Eldersville, lives almost 1,000 miles away and has never served in the military.

But he will nevertheless be honored at the community’s Memorial Day celebration on Monday. And not without justification.

Schneider, who will turn 10 that day, is terminally ill with a chromosomal abnormailty. Under hospice care in his home in Arkansas, the boy has asked that his birthday be marked by people performing acts of kindness for others. In return, a banner honoring Schneider will be unfurled at the Memorial Day service in Eldersville, and a photo will be sent to him.

“He wants nothing more on his birthday than for people to do good deeds,” said Diane Huggins, a Burgettstown resident who is organizing the effort. Huggins first became aware of Schneider as a result of a request made to her organization, Covering the Blue. The group makes crocheted lap afghans for wounded police or corrections officers or officers who lose a K9 partner. Huggins made a cover for Schneider thanks to his interest in and affection for law-enforcement officers, and she heard about Schndeider’s birthday wish.

The poster was made by Gary Ellsworth of GE Printing in Burgettstown. Huggins said Schneider’s hope that everyone will carry out some good deed is “a beautiful gesture.”

Earlier this year, a line of police and fire vehicles escorted Schneider from Alexander, Ark., to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock to fulfill his wish to see as many fire, EMS and police officers assembled together in one place as possible. Schneider reportedly will soon be making a trip to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in the hope that a treatment can be found to extend his life.

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