Tri-State Chapter 2020 Review and 2021 Projections

 

Wake Foundation Tri-State Chapter experienced an unprecedented year in 2020, just as so many others did. So many of our gun show fundraisers were cancelled due to Covid. These fundraisers help us to bring events to our veterans in many different chapters of the foundation. 

Annually, the Wake Foundation sponsors the Valentines For Veterans concert, with the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff, MO. The concert in February of 2020, we were fortunate enough to have some incredible talents; Neal McCoy, Bob Lewis & The Bluegrass Band and Urban Blaze. I was fortunate enough to attend this event prior to the Covid outbreak. Each year, this concert has been an event to thank our veterans. While tickets are required, there is no cost to our veterans or their immediate family. This event typically has attendance from 4000-6000 people. 

After the concert, many events and fundraisers were cancelled. However, here in the Tri-State Chapter, I attended our local Veterans Coffee every month, until they too, were cancelled. The Covid outbreak, slowed down my business sponsorship meetings, but did not stop them completely until about July. After many phone calls from veterans fighting depression, we decided to focus on making our 2nd Annual Disabled Veteran Deer Hunt, happen in September. Fortunately, we have some incredible landowners in Southern Iowa and Northern Missouri. They were all very happy to help out, to donate their land for the weekend use again this year, and even help set hunting blinds. Any event requires months of planning. This one was made a little more difficult because of the virus and so many things being shut down. With the help of so many incredible volunteers, we made this event happen, we increased the number of hunters, and had an event that was truly remarkable! For this event, the Tri-State Chapter paid for the veterans lodging, their hunting tags, all their food for the weekend, gift bags and raffle items. The event was hosted at my family farm, my husband, Richard, cooked all the meat, I made most of the sides and desserts, we had many great donations from local businesses and individuals. We had 2 landowners attend for the weekend, volunteers from True Impact Outdoors, and the local VA in Keosauqua, and several other volunteers. We offered a Meet & Greet for all our hunters, sponsors, landowners, and all volunteers. We had a buffet style meal, a DJ, gave our hunters their gifts and offered our raffle items to all in attendance. We had breakfast, and lunch items available both weekend mornings, and evening meals both nights. This year, we had 4 Iowa hunters and 3 Missouri hunters. We had one hunter in Iowa and one in Missouri take deer during this hunt. The attendance for this event, total for the weekend was 70 Friday, 43 Saturday and 41 Sunday. The weather this year, was a little more tolerable with only one day of rain. This event was truly a great weekend for our veterans. We look forward to the hunt in 2021.

Again, so much was cancelled, but the Tri-State Chapter was able to give 20 veterans, $20 gift certificates for Kahoka Meat Processing & Deli, as well as, a monetary donation to the VFW in Kahoka, Missouri for Veterans Day. We made food and monetary donation to the Kahoka Food Pantry for Thanksgiving. 

December brought our newest program. Stockings For Veterans. This program provided Christmas Gift Bags for many Veteran Homes. Due to all the lockdowns and virus limitations, many of these veterans have spent so much time lockdown or isolated. This year, the Wake Foundation and all its individual chapters worked together to provide these gift bags for the Veteran Homes in their regions. Here in the Tri-State Chapter, we have the Illinois Veterans Home, in Quincy, Illinois. It is home to 290 veterans and their spouses. It is one of the few veteran homes that allow spouses to stay with the veterans. We had the tremendous honor to provide these gift bags, meet the amazing staff of the home, and look forward to working with them in the future. Throughout out chapters, we covered many Veteran Homes from Marshalltown, IA, Quincy, IL, Cape Girardeau, MO, Poplar Bluff, Mo, Fayetteville, AR and in Alabama. We hope to be able to grow this program in 2021. 

Looking ahead to 2021, we have several events planned and are hopeful to get to carry them out this year. Here in the Tri-State Chapter we are looking at fishing events, multiple fundraisers, the disabled veteran deer hunt, veterans day meals, helping local food pantries, Stockings for Veterans 2021 and a Christmas scavenger hunt. We look forward to helping to sponsor several events along the way. 

I would like to personally Thank each and every person, business and veteran that I have met in the past year. I look forward to serving our Tri-State Veterans this year and for many years to come. 

Salli Bowen

Tri-State Chapter Coordinator