In honor of our fine women and men in uniform who have served, are serving or will serve this great nation, we filled and delivered patriotic goodie bags to 247 — our most ever! — elderly Veterans in 12 area nursing/retirement homes located in 10 separate cities across 6 area counties! The bags were delivered Nov. 5 thru Nov. 7, 2024 — just in time for Veterans Day! The following counties were represented in our 4th annual event: Douglas, Sarpy, Burt and Washington in NE, and Harrison and Pottawattamie in IA. The following cities were showcased: Bellevue, Omaha, Fort Calhoun, Blair, Herman, Kennard, Tekamah, NE, as well as Council Bluffs, Missouri Valley and Woodbine, IA. Monetary and purchased item donations more than helped “stuff” the OFCU branded blue patriotic bags with a plethora of fun and useful items.
We exceeded our $3,500 goal as well as exceeded our estimated 230 Vets/bag count. As a result, we were able to add more Vets/bags and purchase more items for inclusion in the Vets bags this year!
To put this into numbers, we’ve grown this year by 27 Vets/bags, 3 retirement/nursing communities, 2 cities and 2 counties! We expanded into Burt and Pottawattamie counties this year.
As much as we’ve grown, we’ve stayed completely true to our effort to personalize and provide a human touch at each home. It’s our little way that we can show it’s something we can do to show that service matters and freedom isn’t free. We concentrate on what we can do as a small movement to provide a small, but personal, gesture of kindness that really counts for Veterans and their families.
Our entire Vets campaign is 100% supported by in-kind donations and volunteer support! And 100% of all donations received go directly back to the Vets in the form of the bags and contents therein.
The Veterans at each home were overjoyed when they received their goodie bags, and they also appreciated being remembered for their selfless sacrifice and service to this great nation. We would like to thank all donors, vendors, Veteran volunteers, OFCU employees and members for their graciousness in donating to this important community service campaign! And we also want to thank the administrators, Vets and staff at each home, as they showed open hospitality in welcoming us and supporting this great event for their Veteran residents and widows of late Veterans. We look forward to yet another very successful year in honoring our nation’s Veterans in November 2025!
Our elderly Veterans paved the initial road to protecting our freedoms and all Vets that follow promise to carry that everlasting torch forward so that our freedoms never end, and our Veterans never perish in vain.
A very special THANK YOU to Veteran volunteers and partners: Ed Lautrup, Veterans Service Officer for Washington County, NE; Chris Byous, President of Omaha Federal Credit Union; Larry Kucek, Fort Calhoun American Legion Post 348, Fort Calhoun, NE; Gary Wachter, American Legion-Jackson Peck Post 274, Herman, NE; Gary Kruse, American Legion-Jackson Peck Post 274, Herman, NE; and Deb Werhli, AMVets Post #8, Blair, NE.
As one Veteran recipient from Primrose Retirement Center in Council Bluffs commented this year, “Thanks so much for the goody bags you brought to Primrose Retirement Home for Veterans and their families. They were very nice and so appreciated.”
Azria Health Rose Vista – Woodbine, IA
Crown Pointe Senior Living – Omaha, NE
The Heritage at Fox Run, Council Bluffs, IA
Northcrest Living Center, Council Bluffs, IA
Midlands Living Center, Council Bluffs, IA
Primrose Retirement Communities, Council Bluffs, IA
Autumn Pointe Assisted Living Community, Fort Calhoun, NE
Carter Place Senior Living, Blair, NE
Good Shepherd Lutheran Community, Blair, NE
Eastern Nebraska Veterans’ Home, Bellevue, NE
Due to the importance of maintaining the utmost privacy for those Veteran residents who did not have a signed photo release on file at the time of the bag delivery event, we did not take photos at the ENVH; however, the following photos were later submitted to us by ENVH staff.
Azria Health Longview, Missouri Valley, IA
Although bags were delivered to this community in advance of Veterans Day, staff there requested to wait and hand out the bags to the Vets on the actual Veterans Day holiday, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. Photos taken by the home have not been received to date, but we will post them here if they are submitted to us.
