By Howard Wilkinson
Enquirer staff writer

MOUNT WASHINGTON - Inside the front door of the Mount Washington Recreation Center on Beacon Street sits a box marked "Socks for Paul."

It's where neighborhood kids and their parents drop clean socks to be sent to the children of Iraq.

They are supposed to be sent overseas to Paul Brondhaver, director of the center. But someone else will have to pass them out to the Iraqi children.

Brondhaver, 35, a staff sergeant in the Ohio National Guard's 216th Engineer battalion, headquartered in Hamilton, was wounded Wednesday when his vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

"Everyone at the center is pulling for him," said Mark Celsor, the Cincinnati Recreation Commission officials who is Brondhaver's supervisor and friend.

To the children and teenagers who spend their free time at the center, Brondhaver was a hero long before he went to war.

"The kids were drawn to him instantly," Celsor said. "He has touched a lot of lives in this city."

GET WELL

Get-well wishes for Staff Sgt. Paul Brondhaver, the Ohio National Guardsman from Anderson Township wounded Wednesday in Iraq, are being gathered by Brondhaver's fellow workers at the Mount Washington Recreation Center. Mark Celsor of the Cincinnati Recreation Commission said any one who wants to send a message to the 38-year-old soldier, who runs the rec center in civilian life, can send it to the center and it will be forwarded to Brondhaver's family. The address is Mount Washington Recreation Center, 1715 Beacon Street, Cincinnati 45230.

Brondhaver, of Anderson Township, went on leave from his job in January when his unit was called to active duty and sent to Iraq.

The attack occurred in Samarra, deep inside Iraq's Sunni Triangle. Brondhaver was severely injured; a fellow soldier of the 216th, Pfc. Samuel Robert Bowen, 38, of Cleveland, was killed.

Brondhaver was evacuated to the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where he underwent surgery to remove shrapnel. Military officials say he remains in serious condition, although his injuries are not considered to be life-threatening.

As soon as he is able, Brondhaver will be flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington to finish his recovery.

Brondhaver, a New Richmond High School graduate, has a wife, Lisa, who is a nurse, and three children. The Brondhavers are members of First Baptist Church of Glen Este - the same church attended by Spc. Matt Maupin, the Army reservist from Union Township who has been held hostage in Iraq for three months.

Celsor said he has spoken to family members who say that Brondhaver is "improving all the time."

"There's going to be some time of healing and rehab for Paul, but he is a strong individual," said Celsor.

Brondhaver has been in Iraq since March, corresponding via e-mail and "snail mail" with kids and staff at the rec center.

Celsor said that Brondhaver told him and others that he was touched deeply by the poverty he saw among the children of Iraq.

"He related to the kids over there as well as he does with the kids here," Celsor said.

Brondhaver came to the Mount Washington center after spending about three years as director of the recreation center at English Woods, a neighborhood of low-income, subsidized housing.

"Mount Washington is an entirely different place than English Woods," said Celsor. "There are not as many 'at-risk' kids in Mount Washington, but they are there. And Paul knows how to spot them and how to steer them in the right direction."

"We can't wait until he is back," Celsor said.

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E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com