The Huntington County Veterans Council will host its first free chili supper to honor all Huntington County veterans, widows and families on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
Major Jeremy Gulley, Huntington North High School principal, will be the featured honoree. Gulley recently returned from Afghanistan and will deliver some comments on his experience.
The event this year is a change in tradition. The past nine Veterans Day events have featured a more formal ceremony focusing on a specific group of veterans, local Veterans Service Officer Bruce Stanton says.
"We're sort of running out of special groups," he says.
Typically, Stanton says, the most involved and patriotic veterans have been those who served in World War II. As the number of WWII veterans dwindles, participation in the holiday events has waned.
Last year the event honored veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Only one veteran showed up, Stanton says.
Since Veterans Day is designed to celebrate living veterans, the event has been changed to a less formal, all-veteran program this year in an attempt to draw a larger crowd of honorees.
The Huntington North High School Varsity Singers will perform. All groups of wartime and peacetime veterans will be honored, and door prizes have been donated to give away for each group.
"We're going to see how this goes," Stanton says of continuing with the less formal program in the fu-
ture. "We're willing to try it this year."
He notes that the annual Memorial Day celebration - honoring deceased veterans - will still be kept as a formal event.
The Veterans Day chili dinner will be held at the First Church of the Nazarene on Flaxmill Road at 6 p.m., and dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. No registration is required.
The event is supported by American Legion Post 7, Post 5, Post 160, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2689 and its Ladies' and Men's Auxiliaries.
Rex Frederick of Frederick's Photography has agreed to match all donations for the veterans programs up to a total of $2,000. Donations may be made up to and including the night of the event. Donations should be designated for the Veterans Recognition Fund and made at the event or mailed to the Huntington County Veterans Service Office at 354 N. Jefferson St., Room 102, Huntington, IN 46750.
