Photo By Spc. Tobey White | Greg Lowe, president of the Cecilia Ruritan Club, stands in front of a red caboose...... read more read more
Subscribe
FORT KNOX, Ky. — As the parade passes by, spectators begin clapping as a simple float, little more than a trailer pulled behind a truck, rolls by. Decorated with red, white and blue ribbons, its occupants sit on bales of hay. On the side of the truck a sign announces its passengers as “Cecilia’s Active Service Members.”
As the Grand Marshalls of the Cecilia Day Parade on August 14 in Cecilia, Ky., the occupants of the float, eight local soldiers and their families, wave to the cheering crowd.
The Cecilia Ruritan Club made the soldiers and their families their parade’s Grand Marshalls as a way to honor their commitment to the country and to recognize the sacrifices they have made for its citizens, said Greg Lowe, president of the Cecilia Ruritan Club.
The club raises money for various projects such as sidewalks, street lights and scholarships. Since Cecilia is not an incorporated town, and has no mayor, the club is designed to make Cecilia a better place to live, Lowe said.
The Cecilia Ruritan club had reached out to service members in the area with the goal of making them feel welcome in a community that is 30 miles from Fort Knox, said Lowe.
Because of the distance from Fort Knox, the families don’t have easy access to the infrastructure of a family support group. One of the goals of the club is to provide points of contact to the families so if they need local help they have someone to reach out to, said Lowe.
When Col. Christopher Toner, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, briefed the club about the military families and single soldiers living in the area, Lowe and his fellow club members decided they needed to do everything they could to make those soldiers feel welcome in the area, Lowe said.
For Lowe, making the soldiers feel at home in the community has a deeper meaning.
“I wore the green suit for 30 years and I know what it feels like to have civilians feel stand-offish,” Lowe said. “I wanted the Soldiers to feel at home.”
Members of the club put together a welcome packet including contact numbers for club members, an explanation of the club and a packet of information about the community. Included in the kit were loaves of banana bread baked by one of the club members, Lowe said.
When Keith Taul, a department manager HGC Glass Company and a member of the club, and his wife Megan were handed an address for a family just three miles down the road, they saw it as a chance to help their young neighbors from California feel at home, Taul said.
“I just thought about how if my children were out in California we’d want someone to help them out,” Taul said.
After delivering the welcome basket, Taul and his wife got to know Brandon and Therese Lopez. They found out the husband liked fishing so they offered the use of the pond on their property and spent time fishing with Brandon and his son.
The Tauls also invited the Lopez family over to dinner. Since the Taul’s didn’t know a lot of people who had recently deployed to Iraq, sitting down and talking with the soldier about his experiences were eye opening, said Taul.
“My goal is for them to feel at home and to see people care about them and appreciate what they have done,” Taul said.
Although living in a new place can be stressful for both service members and family members, the Cecilia Ruritan Club seeks to ease the minds of military members in the area.
They want to reach out to military families and help establish a connection between them and the surrounding communities, said Lowe.
| Date Taken: | 09.30.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 10.01.2010 12:48 |
| Story ID: | 57319 |
| Location: | FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 76 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Cecilia Community leaders reach out to Fort Knox Soldiers, by SPC Tobey White, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
