Bonjour, Monsieur Jack...

We just returned from our September 24-26 trip, and really had a great time. There were some tremendous things that took place, and I'll expound on them in subsequent articles. However, the first one I want to present concerns a French lady who was visiting the WWII Memorial. She was looking for a WWII Veteran to meet and talk to. You see, she was about 14 years old or so during the war when American soldiers came thru and liberated their village. The Vet she ran into was Jack Graham, Jr., a WWII Vet who was on our trip. The lady was quite emotional and was just talking and crying all the time. One of her family members translated all of this for the small group gathered around them because she spoke no English. Everyone got the message and it was a very emotional thing for all of the group.

I'm sure this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened there, but it was a first for our group.

As I said, there will be lots of short articles and lots of pictures from this trip coming in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years.

Hooah

This one's for you , Grandpa...

The Committee has been working very hard to pull in enough money to make another Veterans Trip to DC possible. Sometimes we forget that there are others out there working just as hard to help us. For instance, at last night's meeting, three young men (Jarred, Dylan and Carter) came to present to our group the money they earned this summer selling lemonade, popcorn, candy and sunflower seeds at softball games held at the local field. They also kicked in some of their paper money and also hit up some of their relatives so they would have enough to sponsor their grandfather, Tom, a Korean War Veteran, for this upcoming trip.

I was pretty proud of the boys because they had to help make all their products and stuck it out all summer doing this. The boys are all youngsters and we all know the attention span for youngsters isn't all that long. That's what makes this special, and that's why all of the committee members were very proud of them.

The picture shows Jarred (c) and Dylan (r) presenting a jar of money ($355.00) to Roger, our treasurer. Carter was being a shy boy and was over behind his dad, out of the picture. Also, Dylan wasn't red because he was embarrassed, but because he had been in the pool all day.

Don't wait for people to be generous, show them how.

Hooah

Team Picture...

Here is a copy of the "Team Picture" from our last trip. We took this one at the Korean War Memorial. 45 WWII and Korean War Vets made that trip.

Hooah

Morning Departure of our May Trip...

There's something ominous about rain clouds and the sound of distant thunder at 6:00 in the morning when your group is getting ready to leave on a trip to Washington. For one thing, it's still dark and the spitting rain and clouds don't help.

But the rain only lasted for a short while and we were able to load the buses inside the firehouse, thanks to the Sidney Fire Department and the Shelby County EMA director, Marc Burdiss. That made it much nicer for us, although it was a bit dicey for the school children from the Sidney Middle School who lined the street for our departure.

We've got lots of pictures and I am still going through them to narrow it down to being under a few gigabites. In the mean time, here is a copy of the Proclamation from Mayor Mike Barhorst who welcomed the group and declared May 21-23 as "Honored Veterans to Washington DC Weekend."

I'll buckle down and get the pictures linked to this site so you can see them. If all the smiles on their faces and stories they told were any indication of how well the trip went, the guys had a great time. They all must have told their friends too, because my phone has not stopped ringing since we got back. We are in the process of putting together our September trip and we have almost 50 people lined up so far.

I think the thing that is most rewarding to me about all of this, is that these men and women trust us enough to allow us to take them away from the safety and familiarity of their homes and routines to Washington for 3 days.

There are lots of agencies and people to thank, but a big HOOAH goes to the Vets!


Any questions about this trip or any future ones can be directed to Mike Bennett at: mbenn391@gmail.com.

The courage of a Soldier is almost a contradiction in terms. It is a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die for someone else.

Hooah

Thank, You, Wal-Mart Customers...

If you scan down through this site, you might think all we do is hang out in stores asking for money. Well, we certainly do a lot of that. But it really is rewarding to have people from every walk of life giving to this cause.

One guy said he didn't have much, but he did give us a $5 bill. I told him it was all those people who gave $5 who were getting us there. We certainly got a number of large checks from some very generous donors, but we also got change and $1s and $5s, $10s and $20s and every bit of it counts up toward sponsoring a Vet to see his/her memorials.

I even had one gentleman sign up to be a volunteer, to give his time. He didn't have money to give us, but did have time. Guess what, we'll take it.

We stood out in front of Wal-Mart last week and when we were finished, we had $1,130 toward the trip.

So far, we have 41 Vets on this trip, and quite a waiting list. We have every motel room at the motel and 2 chartered buses, so this is a lot like moving troops -- like I used to do in the old days. All in all, we have 100 people on this trip. That's a lot! The names and numbers can still change as some people may drop out due to health and others will be added. but this is still a big trip.

Well done, Sidney, Shelby County and surrounding areas.

Kindness, like a boomerang, always returns. ~Author Unknown
Hooah

Thank you, Versailles...

This past Saturday, we set up shop at the JOHNS IGA in Versailles, trying to raise funds for the upcoming trip. What a great day!

We were there from 10-3 and raised more than enough money to send one Vet to DC. The people who came in to shop were very supportive and shared some pretty good stories with us about their relatives who might have gone on past trips with us or other trips with other groups. We know unemployment is still a very real thing in that county. So to get that kind of support was very gratifying.

In a way I was surprised that we raised that much money ($373.00), but then again, I wasn't. The kinds of people who grow up in these small towns here, and across the country, are the same kinds who went off to war (then and now) to secure the freedoms of this nation and those of people they would never meet. This day was just a reaffirmation that people like that are still alive and well in America. It started with just a few people that day, and was highlighted by the likes of the man who gave us a $20 bill when he came in the store, and, when he finished his shopping, went to the bank right next door and withdrew $100 from the ATM and came back and gave it to us. He got away before we could even ask his name. I suppose that's the way he wanted it. We just want to thank him, and all the great Americans who stopped by that day.

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.

Hooah

What a Great Bunch of Young Patriots...

I got a call from the guidance counselor at Emerson Elementary School in Sidney a couple of weeks ago. She called to tell me the students at the school had been working on a project to raise funds to support the "Vets to DC" program. We had spent some time with them last fall at their Veteran's Day activities, and they have been very supportive over the years with letters for "Mail Call" and "adopting " some of our WWII Vets. So when she called telling me that the kids had raised some money, I was pleased. When she told me the kids had raised $750.00, I was REALLY surprised.

Ray (one of the really good guys on our committee) and I visited the school this past Wednesday to visit with a group of the children and talk to them about the trip. The top picture shows me tracing the route we will take to DC and answering questions. The middle picture shows us receiving the "check" from the kids. And the bottom picture shows the kids and the banner they made up during this drive.

This was really a great gesture by these young Patriots. The money was raised by collecting pennies one week, nickles the next, and so on up to dollars. The money they gave for this trip could just as easily have been used to buy candy after school, or maybe their school supplies or a toy they might have wanted. But for them to donate it to this cause, to get Veterans they have not yet met to Washington to see their Memorials really says something about them and their families.

I put together a little plaque for the students and the school with this inscription on it: Our sincere gratitude is extended to the students of Emerson Elementary School, Sidney, Ohio for your continued strong support of the Veterans of this country. When you remember and honor us by raising funds for these trips and writing letters for us to read and keep, it warms our hearts and helps us to remember what this is all about – you , the future of this great nation and the freedoms you will enjoy all your lives. Thank you, and God Bless.

When we take our trip, we are going to take a laptop computer and try to hook up a Skype-type of thing between the two Vets in DC and the students at Emerson. That will be way cool, and should really bond these kids to the Veterans. I'll let you all know how this works out.

The purpose of life is not just to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.

Hooah