FeedsFrom the heart
Lodge members ensure holiday gifts for veterans
Members of the Plymouth Elks Lodge 1780 are making sure veterans of the U.S. military are not forgotten during the holiday season.
For more than 30 years, Stewart Israel and his fellow Elks members have traveled to Ann-Arbor, Detroit and Battle Creek to deliver gifts to Veteran Affairs hospitals and veteran shelters
Israel said the Veterans Gift Project gives him a sense of accomplishment and allows him and others to show their patriotism and exercise their belief in giving back.
“Freedom has to be repurchased,” said Israel. “Anyone who serves in the military, war or peace time is a hero.”
On Dec. 16, Elks members, spouses and local Girl Scout troops will wrap more than 750 presents to be hand delivered to veterans during the week of Dec. 17. Each gift package will contain personal grooming products, clean socks and a deck of playing cards.
Israel said the Elks do not have any fundraisers for the Veteran Gift Project and rely solely on the generosity of their members and local businesses that contribute. Israel especially mentioned the Polish League of American Veterans in Livonia and the journeymen at the Ford Truck Plant in Wayne.
Tyrone Chatman, associate executive director of the Michigan Veterans Foundation (MVF) Homeless Shelter said without the contributions of people like Israel and the Elks, many needs of former servicemen would be left unfilled.
“Without some of the things they do, many needs would go unmet and would have to be filled somewhere else,” said Chatman. “ We survive on donations.”
The MVF provides emergency shelter and transitional housing for more than 130 veterans. The MVF also provides counseling, job training and housing assistance.
Chatman, who is a veteran of the Vietnam War, said the relationship between the Plymouth Elks and veterans extends far beyond Christmas. In November, the Elks invited 40 homeless veterans to Plymouth for a steak dinner.
The years the Elks have provided 200 bags of clothing, linens, sports equipment, televisions and computers to the MVF during the past years.
