GALLIPOLIS FERRY, West Virginia – The legacy Howard County Sheriff’s Deputy Carl Koontz left behind is spreading all across the country.
It’s been one year since he was killed in the line of duty, and on Monday, the community gathered at Albright Cemetery in honor of the anniversary.
Hundreds of people showed up and released balloons in his memory.
A note was attached to each of the balloons that went into detail about Deputy Koontz and the sacrifice he made to protect his community.
Deputy Koontz’s wife Kassie is asking everyone who finds a balloon to send a note to their 18-month-old son Noah so he can be reminded of how many lives his father touched.
In less than 24 hours, she received a message about the balloons from hundreds of miles away.
Sandy Hudson Buttrick found the balloons more than 300 miles from Kokomo in Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia.
She took a picture for Kassie, and sent Noah a video message.
“Hi Noah, this is Sandy in West Virginia. We found your dad’s memory balloons, and we redid it and here it goes off again. God bless you all.
Kassie shared the video and the picture on the Facebook page created for the event to track the balloons’ locations.
