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Remember-A-Vet Donations Surpass $40,000

Art Middleton
Art Middleton, Founder of Remember-A-Vet

The 2021 Remember-A-Vet Campaign, sponsored annually by the Battle Creek Enquirer to benefit Veterans at the VA Medical Center, has raised just over $40,000 this year. In 2020, donations totaled over $15,000.

“Our donors have been very generous with the amounts they have sent this year,” said Todd Greenman, Chief, Community and Volunteer Service.  “This is a testament that the community supports and remembers the Veterans we serve.”

The 68-year-old program started in December 1953 when Art Middleton, a reporter and editor at the local newspaper and a Veteran himself, proposed the fund-raising program after some readers asked how they could support Veterans that were hospitalized.  He outlined the program in an article, and the Battle Creek Enquirer continues the program today starting each year on Thanksgiving through January 1.

Donors now send their donation to the VA’s Community and Volunteer Service who deposits all the checks in to the Remember-A-Vet General Post Fund.  On seven holidays through the year, each inpatient receives a Canteen coupon book that they can use to purchase food in the cafeteria or items in the Canteen store, and a variety are snacks are provided to patients in the Inpatient Mental Health units.  Daily newspaper subscriptions for the USA Today and Battle Creek Enquirer newspapers are also delivered for Veterans to read on the units that are paid for from this fund.

In 1971, Middleton died, and his wife continued supporting the program until her death.  The tradition continues with the family as daughter Pam Lajoie, and granddaughter Shannon Cochran both work at the Battle Creek VA Medical Center and are pleased that his legacy continues.

This year’s donors are:


Alfred DiGennaro
Alfred Grosskurth
Alicia McCullough
Alma Weimer
American Legion Auxiliary 298
American Legion Auxiliary Unit #45
American Legion Auxiliary Unit 64
American Legion Post 55
Amy Winchell
Andrew Basco
Ann Lyon
BCCHS Hall of Fame
Barbara Eyre
Barbara Hettich
Barbara Keith
Barbara Leaf
Barbara Taylor
Beth Green
Betty Shelton
Betty Williams
Carol Knockemus
Catherine Zaleski
Constance Zimmerman
Cynthia Koerner
Danny Moss
Daughters of the American Revolution Battle Creek Chapter
David Davis
David Kraft
Dennis Lorenz
Dianna Flint
Donna Kachman
Doris Costa
Dorothy Hutchison
Dorothy Snyder
Dr. Craig Miller
Eaton Corporation
Gerald Tilmann
Gertrude Hickman
Gloria Messner
Gloria Zanotti
Gracanne Smith
Jack Haman
James Monk
James Postula
James Schoenmeyer
Jean Godfrey
Jean Kraft
Jeannie Kerner
Jeff Radewan
Jeffrey Albaugh
Jewish War Veterans of the United States
Jill Crim
Joan Klopfenstein
Joan Maturen
Joanne Geise
John Morrissey
Johnita Keeton
Judith Smith
Judy Rogers
Julianne Moore
Julie Tait Trust
Karen Hansom
Karolynn Ferguson
Kathryn Ward
Kenneth Bell Trust
Knights of Columbus Assembly 3542
Knights of Columbus St. Philip Church
Larry Hawblitz
Larry Karns
Larry Yarger
Laura Brown
Linda Noble
Lynn Gray
Maranatha Original Church of God
Marcia Robinson
Margaret Frey
Margaret Reincke
Marge Breitbach
Marilyn Hosking
Mary Bates
Mary Baukus
Mary Boughton
Mary Brown
Mary Dull
Mary Ellen Jackson
Mary Smith
Michael Barnes
Michael Galloway
Michael Garrison
Michael MacDonald
Michael Young
Michaele Mathews
Military Order of the Purple Heart Chapter 110
Miriam Bible Study Group
Naomi Livengood
National Woman's Relief Corps
Norma Schultz
Norma Sly
Pamela Bertelson
Paul Kline
Pythian Sisters
Rand Middleton
Rebecca Bellinger
Rhonda Turner
Rhys Hollister
Richard Mathews
Robert Snyder
Rose Mary Coakes
Russell Van Nortwick
S.J. Edwards
Sandra Colburn
Sandra Hall
Sandra Hover
Sandra Jacob
Sandra Winchell
Sharon Mileski
Sharon Spriggel
Sharon Weaver
Shirley Ferguson
Sue Teeters
Sunshine Toyota
Susan Kehr
Susan Stanton
Susan Truax
TRMI, Inc.
Theresa Bretl
Thomas Parker
United Auto Workers Local 373
United Auto Workers Local 652
VFW Auxiliary Post 2335
VFW Auxiliary Post 5319
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5319
Vicki Kosmerick
Victoria Bolton
Virginia Hensley Trust
Warren Van Nortwick
William Phelps
William Ray
Zella Smith

 

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