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 Friendship
Manor hosts first annual Veterans Day celebration for resident vets
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[November 13, 2024]
On Monday, November 11th, a Veterans Day
celebration was hosted at Friendship Manor in Lincoln to celebrate
the ten veterans that live in the Friendship Manor facility. These
men are Kenneth DeLanie (Navy), Eric Lowe (Army), Jeff Singleton
(Navy), Randall Wyland, Robert Thomas (Navy), Michael Worthey
(Marine), Alan Boyd (Army), James Saulsberry (Navy), Don Wibben (Air
Force), and Richard Pearce (Army).
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Anna Clapp, Friendship Manor resident and volunteer,
organized the event. Clapp kicked things off just after 3 p.m. by
thanking everyone for coming and introducing the speakers for the
event. Clapp then welcomed the first of the speakers up, Daniel
Benedict.
Benedict is a Veterans Service Officer with the
Veterans Assistance Commission in Lincoln. His job is to make sure
that veterans have everything that they need, and if they do not, to
help them get what they need. He introduced Stephanie Lucas, a woman
who is currently training to become a Veterans Service Officer.
After introductions, Benedict began to speak on Veterans Day,
starting with some facts. Benedict shared that, from the
establishment of our country to today, over 40 million people have
served in the United States Military. He also shared that this is
the 70th Veterans Day, as Armistice Day was retitled to Veterans Day
in 1954.
Benedict then spoke on the nature of veterans and our
freedoms as Americans. He gave numerous examples of freedoms that
were provided to us by our veterans. This included the freedom of
speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and many more.
After these examples, Benedict shared a quote by Ronald Reagan,
“some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a
difference in the world.” He then modified the quote by sharing that
all veterans do not have this problem. After
Benedict’s remarks, awards were handed out to each of the veterans
that reside at Friendship Manor. Lucas walked the award to each
veteran as their names were called. Not every veteran was able to
attend, but most were.
One of the veterans unable to be in attendance was
Alan Boyd. Boyd is currently in hospice, but his sister JoAnn Washam
was able to be present to accept the reward on his behalf.
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The next guest speaker, Steve Wheeler, then
approached the microphone to speak about the Honor Flight program.
Wheeler spoke about how this trip is not just a day trip for the
veterans that go on it, it is much more meaningful than that. Tina
Kackley, who was also with Honor Flight, spoke about the specifics
of the trip. It is a trip to show the veterans how much they are
appreciated and can be a very healing experience.
The Land of Lincoln Honor Flight, the specific branch
of the Honor Flight that Wheeler and Kackley are a part of, was
started in 2009. Since then, 72 flights have been completed, with an
average of 93-96 veterans per flight today. The Land of Lincoln
Honor Flight Regularly rents 747’s to accommodate all of the
veterans and guests that they take to Washington D.C. They then
showed a brief video giving more detail on the Honor Flight program.
After Wheeler and Kackley’s remarks, Clapp then asked
for a photo to be taken of all the veterans. Clapp then thanked
everyone for coming, bringing the event to a close.
[Matt Boutcher]
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