PICTURES from September 13, 2008 MEETING
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OUR CHAPTER at PRAYER
Lord God,
Thank You for bringing us together today, so that we can experience once again the joy of seeing and being with our Compatriots and DAR Sisters. Thank you, also, Lord for the pleasure and privilege of having our guests with us, and we ask You to bless each of them and all those who are dear to their hearts.
Please, Lord, bless our Compatriots and DAR Sisters who could not be here today. Bless also the families and friends of those former members who have died. Please heal those who are sick or injured, and comfort those who are grieving.
Lord, we ask you to bless both those who guide our Chapter and those in our Chapter who work to provide to others our acts of service, recognition, encouragement, and goodwill. We are grateful for the blessings of our renewed opportunities for serving and helping others, and for the health and strength You give us which enables us to make a minute, an hour, or a day a better and happier time in the lives of others. Guide us and strengthen us so that all we do will be pleasing to You and helpful to those we serve.
We pray, Lord, that You will help us to do all we can to preserve, defend, and protect our United States of America, and the cherished liberties and freedoms which our Patriot Fathers passionately believed in and deeply revered?and for which they courageously lived and died.
Finally, Lord God, we ask Your blessings and protection on all the men and women, and their families, who are defending and protecting our beloved country by their service in or support of our military forces. Please keep those serving in harm’s way free from death, injury, and other perils, and bring them safely home to their families and friends.
Thank You, Lord, for listening to our prayers. AMEN
LtoR: John Camillo, new members: Lynn Downs, Joe Brown and Dave Garraway; Jack Townsend
Meritorious Service Award presented by John Camillo to John Pardee
Bronze Color Guard Medal presented by John Pardee to Harley Nelson and John Tucker
Martha Washington presented by Richard Sumner to Sandy Bockhorst and Mary Ann Teater
Lynn Downs and his wife
Joe Brown and his wife
Dave Garraway and his wife
Good Citizenship Award presented by Hal Marvin to Barbara Mills
One of the enjoyable benefits of attending our Withlacoochee Chapter meetings is the opportunity to meet people whose accomplishments are beyond the ordinary. We have had the pleasure of having as our guests ladies and gentlemen from various walks of life?such as bright, committed JROTC students and heroes including serving military personnel, firemen, police officers, and a brave young lad in elementary school. Today, it is my privilege to introduce our guest of honor, Mrs. Barbara Mills, and her husband, Jim Mills.
Barbara is the founder of Citrus County Heroes, an organization whose mission is to show our military men and women returning home from deployment to the Middle East, that we fully support each of them and greatly appreciate all they have sacrificed and done to protect and defend us, our families, our friends, our neighbors, and our fellow citizens. Jim has supported and helped Barbara since she began her efforts in 2007. Their efforts include sending cards and care packages to deployed military personnel, and providing gifts, along with a warm, personal welcome, to military men and women returning home.
Many of us here today are veterans, and can remember our reception when we returned home from what some people now call a “high risk zone”. Personally, I’m not fond of that terminology for an area where combat occurs, because I think of US Highway 19 as a “high risk zone.” As far as I am concerned, if you are in a location where you are subject to receiving hostile fire, then you’re in a “Combat Zone”.
Today, here in Citrus County, thanks to a sensitive, caring, compassionate, and dedicated lady named Barbara Mills, and all who assist her, our military men and women encounter an atmosphere of heartfelt gratitude and profound respect for all they have done on our behalf as members of our serving military forces.
It is truly a privilege and an honor for all the members of our SAR chapter and Ladies Auxiliary to present to Barbara Mills the Sons Of The American Revolution Good Citizenship Medal and Certificate for her patriotic deeds in supporting members of our military forces who serve and sacrifice so that our country, our freedoms, and our liberties will endure. Thank you, Barbara. WELL DONE!
