To date, 1,004 Vets/Caregivers/Volunteers have taken this trip with us over the past five years (ten trips) to see these Memorials. If you are a WWII or Korean War or Vietnam/Vietnam Era Vet in Shelby County (Ohio), contact us to see how you too can join us on the "Honor Bus."
As we get closer to our next trip to Washington (May 20-22), we have received many very generous donations toward the expenses of this venture. Individual donors have written checks to sponsor Vets, with these checks ranging from $1,000.00 to $10.00. They have come from all points on the compass and people from all walks of life. In light of this economy, this is extremely gratifying and appreciated by the Committee. These make us want to have an even more special trip for these Veterans and their Caregivers.
Along those lines, I want to just highlight two special groups who have helped us this year (again).
First, the Kid's Care and Student Council Clubs at Emerson Elementary School in Sidney, with the help and guidance of their teachers, took us under their wings and set out to raise enough money to sponsor one Vet's trip ($355.00). Well, they got so involved in this worthwhile project, they ended up sponsoring 4 Vet's trips!!! These pictures are from the presentation they made to us the other day at their school. These 2nd and 3rd graders will probably not ever know how much they have given these Vets, but we will. And now, YOU will.
In addition to the money they raised, we were also presented with a box of letters the students had written to the Vets. These are used in our "Mail Call" activities during the trip.
2nd and 3rd Graders from Emerson Elementary School.
It just so happens that the nickname for the Emerson School is "The Eagles." How ironic it was that we concluded the assembly with the presentation of a cane to the students for their display case. The canes are carved by the Miami Valley Wood Carvers, Assn. and given to the Vets prior to the trip. The "head" of the cane is carved in the shape of an Eagle.
Jim presents an "Eagle Cane" to the students.
The second group that pitched in was the 2011 Riverside H.S. Powerlifting Team (shown below). This is a group of students from Riverside High School, located in DeGraffe, OH who have spent the better part of this past year collecting scrap metal and selling it, with the proceeds going to us, and to cover some of their expenses for the upcoming "World Meet" for powerlifters of their age group. They qualified for this meet, which is coming up later this Spring, and according to their coach, Mr. Stewart, stand a good chance of placing some of their lifters in the top slots. This would be unprecedented for a school their size.
Click on this picture to see a full size shot.
Just like the Emerson students, they too raised enough to sponsor 4 Vets. That's over $1,400.00, which was also money taken away from their expense fund. That meant they had to work that much harder to cover this donation.
As I said earlier, this is just an example of two groups who saw the value of honoring Veterans and went about making it happen. What a great example these two groups are for other young people.
I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catchers mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back. (Maya Angelou) Hooah
One day last year, Roger (our Committee treasurer) and I just happened to run into each other at the post office in Anna and were exchanging items regarding an upcoming trip to DC for the Vets when in came a little old guy (Ralph) wearing a Korean War Veterans hat. Well, it didn't take us long to jump on him and ask if he had been to Washington to see the Memorials.
He told us he had not, so we proceeded to go through the whole process and asked him if he would be interested in going. He said he had never been there and would certainly like to see them before he died. We were all set. I got him an application and he was on the list.
Ralph is a real quiet guy, unassuming and a pretty neat guy.Shown below on the left, he is looking over his information packet he received at the pre-departure dinner sponsored by the Sidney VFW Post 4239.
Ralph lives in Anna and I had seen him around town but had never talked to him before this. Getting a guy like this to go on the trip was just dumb luck, but I knew he would have a good time. He did not take a travel companion with him, so it was kinda like "Ferris Buehler's Big Adventure." Ralph's nickname is "Rattlesnake" but I never found out how he got that.
I would bet few of us knew much if anything about Ralph before this trip, and some probably haven't thought about him since. But for that two day period, he was special to us. When I drive up to check the mail box, I often end up going past Ralph's place and I sometimes see him sitting out below the awning, just watching traffic go by. I now honk and wave -- sometimes he sees me in time to return my wave, sometimes he sees who it is, and sometimes he's just waving to someone who honks at him. He may not know who it was, but I know who he is.
Most of you know by now that we have a thing called "Mail Call" on the trips. Well, the Mail Call Committee got in touch with Ralph's point of contact and a member of his family sent him a clock which we gave to him on the last mail call (pictured below). I think it came from a daughter who lives our west somewhere. It really surprised him. These are the kinds of things that make these trips special.
Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.(Georgia O'Keeffe)
Getting Veterans to Washington to see their Memorials is probably one of the most fulfilling things things I have been associated with for a long time. The Shelby County Vets To DC Committee is a collection of the most fantastic people I have ever met. They come from all walks of life, with very diversified backgrounds. But they all have a singular focus -- doing whatever it takes to get these Veterans to DC. We have made four trips as of this writing, and are well on our way to putting the finishing touches on trip #5 -- that equates to a little over 125 Vets (and an equal number of Caregivers) who have gone. There have been some hiccups along the way, but working with such a professional group of volunteers, things have appeared flawless and the Vets have had a wonderful time.
There are a lot of really great things that happen on each trip, and lots of stories we hear during those two days. We have a get-together Saturday night after the dinner and just sit around and talk, tell stories and get to really know each other. But some of the stories aren't directly told, but picked up by keeping your eyes and ears open during the day. This is one of those stories.
Frank is a World War II Veteran, and as you can see, he is getting up there in age. Well, we weren't sure if he would be able to make the trip because he requires oxygen all the time and cannot walk much. Well, Judy, our nurse, made the suggestion that we contact him and his caregiver (Bob) and see who his oxygen supplier is. We did that and since they are a national company, they were able to put a tank at the hotel for him and supply some portable units for the trip and the day of sightseeing. We also get the use of new wheelchairs from Apria Home Healthcare so getting around was no big deal.
But the real story is two-fold with Frank. The picture below was taken at the WWII Memorial by the Anzio section. Frank fought at Anzio and lost some good friends in those battles. He told Bob that he was so grateful to be at the Memorial, and he felt that he could now say good-bye to his buddies. Certainly wouldn't have learned anything like that if he hadn't made that trip.
The Second part of the story was at the Korean War Memorial. We have a little ceremony (wreath laying, reading of the names of those from Shelby County who were killed in that war, and playing taps) at each of the two Memorials. Well, as we finished reading out the names of those who were killed there and were getting ready to play Taps and render honors, Frank (on right below) had Bob help him up out of the wheelchair so he could stand (center, below) and salute. Boy are those special moments -- not big things, but really, really special.
In the minds of men, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown. Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the test first -- some learn and live and some don't and die. And in between, there are doors holding back floods of memories.
One of the really nice things that is done for the Vets that we take on our trips to Washington is the cane that they get prior to leaving. Each year, the Miami Valley Wood Carvers Association has carved canes for the guys so they will have them if needed when they go to DC. They really do a nice job and the Vets really like them. These two pictures are from the May 2010 trip.
Ray (in the far lest in this picture) is one of our guys works with the woodcarvers and takes charge of that aspect. The guys really get a kick out of picking out their own cane. Some of them even personalize theirs. One of the guys from this past trip in September took one of his dog tags and fastened it to the cane. That looked pretty cool and just gave it a personal touch.
When we were done passing them out, we told them to hold the cane up for just a moment. We told them we were taking them to DC and we expected them "to raise a little cane while there." We always get a laugh out of that.
This picture (below) was taken at the WWII Memorial following our ceremony honoring those who fell in battle during the Second World War.
This picture (below) was taken at the Korean War Veterans Memorial following our ceremony there earlier that afternoon.
We had 38 Vets on this trip; 2 from WWII and 36 from the Korean War. Most of them were strangers before going on this trip, maybe knowing one or two of the other guys. What a blessing it was to have them be our guests for this trip.
Our next trip is scheduled for May 20-22, 2011. If you would like some information or would like to make a contribution, please send an email to our committee at mbenn391@gmail.com.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. (Burke)
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.
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
