A Vietnam veteran in Washington state is making sure other vets aren’t forgotten on Valentine’s Day. In 2020, when COVID protocols prevented visitors at the Spokane Veterans Home, VFW chaplain Wes Anderson had an idea. “I knew the veterans didn't have any way of getting out or families being able to contact them,” the 76-year-old Marine veteran recalls. “So I contacted a friend of mine with Northeast Youth Center to see if he could have his kids do some Valentine's Day cards for the veterans here.”
Word of the initiative spread and soon the Veterans Home was receiving cards and boxes of Valentine’s candy from all across the country. That year, more than 3-thousand cards came in for the veterans at the home. “I was like, ‘holy smokes!’” Anderson says. “This is something which became a labor of love, and it started with a bunch of kids at a small community center.” The initiative has now become a yearly tradition.
In January, Anderson contacted a local social media manager to help get the word out about the program and as of a week ago, the Veterans Home had already received about 300 cards. Gary Wright, a 65-year-old Army Reserve vet who's lived at the home for five years, has been the recipient of several of the cards in past years. “They’re great,” he says. “Makes a big difference.” And that’s why Anderson continues the program, to let the vets know they’re still appreciated, saying, “Their service is still respected, and we just wanted to make them feel that they’re still a part of our community, and a part of us.”
Source: USA Today