Honoring the veterans
Published 12:04 pm Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Vets Serving Vets, with help from First State Bank, will be hosting a special dinner on Nov. 9 for Veterans Day in honor for all of those who have served. Veterans from Middlesboro and neighboring towns, along with their families are all welcome to attend.
Sponsors from First State Bank worked all day Wednesday to get the Middlesboro Community Center ready for the dinner and the influx of guest they expect to accommodate. Rows of tables were set up with red, white and blue tablecloths. On the stage, three flags were presented on the curtain — the American flag, the POW-MIA flag and the flag of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Vets Serving Vets Commanding Officer Doug Bayless, expects a great turnout for dinner and as a veteran himself is excited to help organize such an event.
“We generally have about 100 veterans come through — it’s something,” said Bayless.
According to an article at www.history.com, Veterans Day originally began as Armistice Day in 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I. The day became a national holiday in 1938. The holiday did not become “Veterans Day” until the year 1958, when President Eisenhower officially changed the name.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Veterans Day is that Great Britain, France, Australia and Canada all celebrate Veterans Day on or around the same day as America.
Pat Fulton of First State Bank, who has family that has served in the military, stated “We just wanted to find a way to honor our veterans and thank them for all that they do and continue to do. I hope it means a lot to the community, that they know we all need to thank our veterans for our freedom.”
The dinner will begin at 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 9 at the Middlesboro Community Center.
Some of the information for this article can be found at http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/veterans-day-facts.