Monday, May 28, 2018

memorial day weekend part i: american legion


It was a busy Memorial Day weekend.

On Saturday it was the reopening of American Legion Hall 18 in Weehawken, NJ. We'd first gotten involved with the Hall several months ago. Apparently the Hall had fallen into disrepair over years of neglect. They needed volunteers to help get it ready for reopening. The Newark Platoon of The Mission Continues helped round up volunteers to get it cleaned up and painted. We made a Stack Up event out of helping.

Since then, we've stayed in touch. We had planned one event with them for the month of the military child. That fell through because they had other commitments, but we are still working with Lucy Del Gaudio, the Vice Commander of the Hall, to have an event there this summer.

At any rate, the grand reopening was an emotional day for many of the area vets, with speeches by local politicians. To our surprise and delight they honored us, calling us up to receive a certificate of appreciation for the work we did for them.

Getting called up was quite the surprise. When we were invited to this event we were told that they were planning something nice. But we had no idea. It's funny how volunteering with one group brought us to another and then another. It's truly an example of the Hebrew expression:
בדרך שהולך מוליכין אותוץ
And it makes me really proud of Ethan, since all of our involvement -- with Stack-Up, with The Mission Continues, with the American Legion Hall -- is due to him.

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