Manchester UNICO will be hosting a pasta dinner tonight at 6 p.m. at the Army & Navy Club on Main Street to help raise funds to build Sandra Lee's new home in town via Purple Heart Homes. Friday is also Sandra Lee's birthday.
Lee volunteered for the Army shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and was deployed to Iraq in December of 2003, where she served as a liaison to help rebuild schools in Western Baghdad. She was involved in four roadside bomb incidents that hit vehicles she was riding in, resulting in a series of concussions that grew more serious. Lee also took fire from insurgents numerous times and had return fire without knee pads, which resulted in damage to her right knee and right shoulder. She was also raped by a fellow soldier.
Today, Lee suffers from severe PTSD that include memory problems, constant headaches and vertigo, debilitating nightmares, depression, panic attacks, muscle strain and is now considered 80 percent disabled.
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Doors open for tonight's event at 6 p.m., and the dinner begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 per person.
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