This past Saturday we were honored to host the 5th Annual Tribute to Veterans at Mountain Home. Five years ago when we started this event our hope and prayer was simple; Dear Lord, please use us and what we do to bring our community together, to pay honor and respect to the Veterans who have sacrificed so much to make and keep our nation free, and to honor You, our Lord and Savior as our Founding Generations did by sharing Your Love with those we engage with along the way. While the journey is ongoing, we have seen and felt God’s blessings and we pray they continue going forward.
For the 3rd year, the American Legion Honor Guard – Ider Team participated in this year’s event with the story of the POW, Flag Folding (with narration of each fold), Rifles, and Taps. Coupled with our small tokens of thanks and recognition for the Veterans in attendance including hearing their names, branch of service and length of service, remembrance of the 105 known Veterans buried at Mountain Home, poignant and timely remarks from Elder Selba Beaty, U.S. Army (Ret), Rex Beaty and Derrick Blevins, and a moving rendition of the National Anthem played by Cletus Little and sang by attendees.
This was our last event prior to our nation celebrating 250 years. As such, a brief but insightful historical summary was presented by three generations of Sand Mountainiers with deep family ties to Mountain Home. David Smith (7th Generation), Derrick Blevins (7th Generation), Dennis Hall (Marine Corp Veteran)(6th Generation), and Larry Crazy (5th Generation) brought our nations history and our forward mission into crystal clear light in a few short minutes.
This year we were blessed to have local sponsorships for our Veterans Program from Wilson Funeral Home & Crematory in Fort Payne, and Corner Stone Funeral Chapel & Crematory in Ider. Because of their sponsorships, we were able to have a few small door prizes – nothing like winning something, and installation bases for new Veteran foot markers. Also, their sponsorship fortifies our belief that honoring our Veterans, both present and past, is a worthy initiative, and that community is more that just a word.
All of us who worked on the event preparation, set up, and execution, truely believe that community is the cornerstone of our connectedness to not only this place, but to our neighbors, our fellow man.