Local Veterans receive donation

Those with the DAV #56, came together for a special gift.

“Veterans do so much for us. Sometimes it’s a thankless job, and sometimes as people get older they tend to be forgotten about, and this is just a way for us to give back and do our part.” -Lance Burnham, Leadership Lauderdale

The class of 2018 with Leadership Lauderdale has now completed their community project, in which they raised a little over $2,100 for this DAV chapter to put towards a new transportation van.

“To me, it’s very important because this is how the veterans in Lauderdale county get from Meridian to Jackson. Just to give you an idea, it varies, but we’ll haul maybe 65 to 100 veterans in a month to Jackson, and that’s the only way they can get there.” -Ricky Nelson, SVC, DAV Ch. #56

The VA in Jackson is the closet to the disabled veterans here in the Meridian area. Those who volunteer to drive, simply, want to give back.

“There’s a lot of people that feel a close connection to veterans, and they want to do something, but they don’t know how to do something. By being able to allow an employee to drive one day a month or even two days a month and still pay them full time is a really good benefit.” -Ken Storms, driving coord.

“A lot of us have veterans in our families, and we just wanted to show them that we appreciate what they’ve done for us and that we haven’t forgotten about them and we want to give them good, reliable transportation to get back and forth to the VA.” -Leah Hearn, Leadership Lauderdale

More volunteer drivers are needed. To get involved, contact Ken Storms at krstorms5496@gmail.com or at 601-917-1007.