Wallace Elks Lodge gives back to local Vets

SILVERTON – The Wallace Elks lodge #331 continued to serve as an example of how we should honor our veterans when they visited Good Samaritan retirement home on Sunday.

For the second year in a row, Wallace Elks Veterans Committee Chairman Sharon Howard and a group of volunteers made the trip to Silverton to not only honor the veterans residing there with a ceremony, but also provide them with some meaningful gifts.

Kicking off at 11:11 a.m. on November 11 (commemorating armistice day), the visiting Elks began with the veterans ritual ceremony in which they talk briefly about the history of the Lodge, Veterans Day and each of the branches of the military.

Following the ritual, each of the eight participating veterans at Good Samaritan were presented boxes that included a sweatshirt that had their service’s patch on it, a ‘Pin-ups for Vets’ calendar, toiletries, and any other special item they requested (if any).

Pin-ups for Vets is a group that creates calendars filled with tasteful Pin-up girls and sells them to benefit Veteran healthcare programs.

Boxes were also provided to veterans who are home bound and could not attend.

After the presentation of the boxes, each vet took a moment to talk about themselves and their service.

The ceremony ended with a performance of Taps.

Howard felt that this year’s visit to Good Samaritan went well and was a little more special compared to last year because of the ritual.

“This is the first time that we did the veterans ritual ceremony,” she said.

Working with staff at Good Samaritan, the entire event was put on by volunteers from the Wallace Elks Lodge and the Veterans Committee.