The 2008 Gathering of World War II Veterans is History

Seeing the many World War II veterans and others who turned out for the “Salute to the Veterans of World War II” event on Saturday made all the months of planning worth every minute of it. Although my family and I organized the event, many others helped make it a huge event.

Check out many more photos in the photo gallery

The Elks, who hosted Flag Day ceremonies earlier in the day, worked along side us with our event, including providing us with the use of their hall. They also provided a light lunch for all those in attendance at both events that day.

American Idol winners have nothing over Emily Nyman of Morgan. She sang several songs as a tribute to the veterans. She is fortunate to have the support, friendship, and song writing talents of Lynn Berry to help her make such beautiful music. Conrad Sanville of Sanville Sound Systems and Patrick Smith used their talents to help bring the event to life. Conrad borrowed the high quality speakers from Tom Sumner of Derby who, as a serviceman, has served two tours in Iraq. Tom's grandfather, John Sumner, a WW II veteran, was at the event.

Then there were the veterans who spoke – Francis Angier of Williston, Joe Queenin of Derby Line, Lyndy Palin of Derby, Evelyn Page of Holland, and Ken Jenness of Morgan. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, and Vermont Auditor and veteran, Thomas Salmon, also paid tribute to the veterans and those who served on the home front. Reverend Dr. Fred Barker of Derby provided opening prayer, while Bill Graham of Newport, who is a veteran, and member of the Elks, ended the event with a closing prayer. Thanks also to Community Bank for their donation to the event.

The media, especially the local media – newsprint, radio, and local access television -were super at helping us get the word out about the event. They understood this was likely a last of a kind event. Not only did they provide coverage of the event, but they provided publicity of it in the weeks leading up to it hoping that as many Vermont WW II veterans would know about it as possible. I should note that Peter and Sylvie Carragher, who filmed the event for NEK-TV, also film many of our family's monthly history events, as well as many other history and cultural events that take place around the Kingdom. The amazing thing is all of their work is done as volunteers. These two residents of the Eastern Townships of Quebec donate hundreds of hours every year to their neighbors to their south.

Also thanks to my friend and web designer, Bill Alexander of Alpine Web Media LLC., in Shelburne, formerly of Newport, for donating his time to promote the event on the web to the entire world.

There is another group that made this event special – the veterans, their families, and everybody else who turned out. It was great to stand there and look out over such a large group of people. And thank you to the surprise visit by my friend, and World War II veteran, Ted Chaffee. Ted is struggling with serious health issues that now keeps him housebound – with the exception of making it to this event, thanks to his dedicated daughter, Donna, who made the arrangements, and brought him to the event.

We are particularly proud of our children. Our sons, Curtis and Nick, drove from Maine to attend the event, and for the second year our daughter, Emily, wowed the crowd by honoring the veterans with her video productions using old and new photos of the veterans. Hopefully the idea of being good community servants, and the importance of voluntarism, has forever been ingrained into their minds.
Thank you to everybody for making it a special day for a group of people who have become known as members of the “Greatest Generation”.

With Deepest appreciation,

Scott, Penny, Curtis, Nick, and Emily Wheeler

Photo gallery