With less than a week now remaining before their scheduled trip to Washington D.C., local organizers of the World War II Veterans pilgrimage to the U.S. World War II Memorial are still approximately $4,700 short of the needed funding.
Conceived by Korean War veteran and Goshen city councilman Chic Lantz, the trip has been in the works for approximately a year with the goal of allowing local World War II veterans from the Goshen area a chance to see the relatively new World War II memorial.
Goshen’s Mearl Grabill, whose uncle Floyd Miller of Elkhart is also a World War II veteran, has been assisting Lantz in organizing the trip over the past few weeks.
“To begin with, we went through a couple of different funding options, such as private parties, veterans organizations, etc. to get a trip together,” Grabill said. “The memorial was completed in 2005, and by that time a large number of World War II vets were either too incapacitated to visit, or they had already passed on.”
Keeping these realities in mind, both Lantz and Grabill decided that the sooner the trip could be conducted, the better, as numerous cancellations have already occurred due to health-related issues.
“Chic thought it was very important to do something now, and about a week ago he decided that the group couldn’t wait any longer and was going to go ahead and go,” Grabill said. “The bus is scheduled to leave Friday at 7:30 a.m. from the VFW post in Goshen. It will take most of the day to get there, and then the group will tour the World War II memorial and several other sites such as the Arlington National Cemetery.”
At least, that was the plan until the group’s organizers ran into a snag.
According to Grabill, while the trip will be of no cost to the veterans, total cost to transport and house the vets actually comes to approximately $12,000 — a number that the organizers are currently about $4,700 shy of.
And the clock is ticking.
“There is a two-front challenge,” Grabill said. “One is the fact that when the trip committee finally decided that they were going, they went to two or three major funding sources and got pledges. But when it finally came down to it, they found they were short about $5,000.
“The second is health issues, as most of these people are in their mid-80s and up. So far we’ve gotten 15 confirmations of people wanting to go, and four cancellations due to health. And two people have actually died since the plans for the trip began, so that has definitely heightened and reaffirmed our concerns that if anything is going to happen, it needs to happen now.”
With the news that several seats will now be vacant on the tour bus, Lantz said he has decided to expand the invitation to all World War II vets residing in Elkhart County, not just Goshen.
“There are 10 to 12 seats anticipated to be available on the bus, so we are expanding our invitation to all World War II veterans throughout Elkhart County,” Lantz said, noting that assistants or caregivers may accompany the veterans for an additional fee. “Anyone interested in coming along needs to call me by Wednesday at 533-0160, and all seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.”
As for the funding issue, Grabill noted that since news of the funding shortfall came to light a few days ago, the committee has been out canvassing the streets in an attempt to find anyone willing to donate to the group’s trip fund.
“We’ve been out contacting businesses for the last three days, and everyone is very conservative right now because of economic concerns,” Grabill said. “Because of this, we’ve decided to broaden the scope of our appeal to anyone who would like to donate.”
According to Lantz, contributions may be mailed to the First State Bank of Middlebury, P.O. Box 804, Goshen, 46527, and need to be in no later than Tuesday evening.
Donations can also be hand delivered to any First State Bank office, which includes: North Main Street; Greencroft Senior Center in Goshen; home offices on Main Street in Middlebury; the Elkhart branches at Cobblestone Crossing or River Walk; and the Mishawaka branch on Edison Lakes Parkway.
All checks should be made out to “Goshen’s Celebrate America” and should be received at a First State Bank location by close of business Wednesday.
“It’s now or never for most of these veterans and we must not fall short,” Lantz said.
