The VA Clinic stand down was awash in liquid sunshine today! A steady rain kept the dust and crowd down at the annual event. Vets who attended were treated to presentations by service providers, sea bag loads of military surplus, haircuts, first aid kits, clothing and MOST IMPORTANTLY, VFP cooked ginormous hot dogs!
VFP overcame a snafu regarding grill acquisition and began cooking the 1/5 pound all beef super dogs at about 11:50 AM. We were kept busy as our small grill struggled to heat the behemoths. We were well represented by Ron Greenfield, Dave Helfrich, volunteer USI MSW student Callie Sanders and Gary May. Dave and Callie deserve special thanks--Callie for volunteering and responding to this opportunity on short notice and delaying her drive home to help from beginning to end and Dave for dropping his plans to bring the grill to the Clinic and staying to help cook and serve.
The many "Thank Yous" we received made the day in the rain well worth while. The Tammy Lindner-headed employee group from the Marion VAMC that provided the "weenies" donated 25 pounds of them to VFP for our next Clinic Cookout!
For me, take aways from today's event include the quintessential VFP sentiment express by one of the barbers, "Combat vets are the best peacemakers" and the more mundane, yet profound reality of military life, "If you're wet, you're a vet". A good day indeed!!
Click on the link above to view photos through raindrops.
0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink | Posted by Gary May on Friday, September 25, 2009
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