08 01 2007 - BRANDON - Though small (5-foot-7, 155 pounds) by linebacker standards, Bloomingdale junior C.J. Curran possesses what many deem an oversized heart. Shortly after returning from a two-week mission trip to Israel in June, the Bell Shoals Baptist Church member began volunteering in the food pantry at the Brandon-based Emergency Care Help Organization (ECHO). Curran also has taken mission trips to Brazil and Kazakhstan, but said the Israel excursion, where he spent most of the time playing with orphans or neglected kids, especially touched him. “It was definitely cool to be a role model or father figure or brother to those kids who …just wanted to be loved,” he said. BRIAN CASSELLA | Times
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