Bourne to provide information on services as part of Veterans Day observance
BUZZARDS BAY – Joseph Gordon is determined to make this Veterans Day, in helping-hand fashion, a holiday just a bit more meaningful in Bourne than it has been in the past. Gordon is the Bourne Veterans Memorial Community Center Trustee Chairman.
Planning is underway with the Bourne American Legion chapter, headed up by Don Dastous of Buzzards Bay, which will provide a ceremonial rifle squad. The customary volleys will be fired at 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 11 outside the community center on Main Street. The public is invited.
But this year inside the intergenerational center, the Veterans Administration will offer self-help information for military veterans.
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Reaching out to those who served on Veterans Day
Gordon, a Navy veteran, said he hopes the ceremony and especially a coffee social afterward will provide an opportunity to highlight issues facing those who served -- especially those living with bouts of despair.
“I think it’s important we do this,” Gordon said. “It’s still an important day. This building will be open (Nov. 11), and the information will be available at the Veterans Memorial (Hall of Flags).”
David Dorffler, an outreach specialist at the Cape Cod Veterans Center, will attend and provide information and printed materials for veterans seeking assistance, Gordon said.
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“He’s the real deal,” Gordon said. “A veteran himself. Served in Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Knowledgeable and helpful. Glad to come to Bourne. He’s understanding.”
Veterans Day and Memorial Day in town have become less than a large-scale event over the past four decades. Bestowing honors, recognizing service, ceremonies and massive flag placement operations at Massachusetts National Cemetery gravesites on Otis Air National Guard Base within Joint Base Cape Cod have partly eclipsed local observances in what was once an Air Force town.
Select Board Chair Peter Meier, the liaison to Community Center trustees, has invited Joint Base Cape Cod commanders and their families to the Veterans Day ceremony.
Plans to add more veterans names in Hall of Flags
“We’re trying to do something just a little bit more elaborate than just going to the flagpole,” Meier said. “I feel that as a military community we don’t do enough to promote that you’re here.”
Town public works crews in recent years have also been refurbishing individual memorial markers on both sides of the canal, some in high-visibility areas, others in much less prominent locations.
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Gordon and fellow center trustee Chris Farrell plan to install two more panels in the center Hall of Flags to add the names of Bourne veterans who served during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Bourne Veterans Agent Greg Quilty in his last report to the town noted the office assisted in obtaining $174,932 for veterans to pay for housing, heat, medical and other related costs.
“The amount expended is reimbursed to the town by the commonwealth at a rate of 75% of total expenditures,” he noted.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Bourne will reach out to those who've served as part of Veterans Day
