Chillicothe VA Medical Center to Host Inaugural “Honoring Veterans Festival” Event

At the Chillicothe VA Medical Center, we chose to honor our community Veterans in a different way than we are accustomed to, with a festival of our own. 

            Thursday, November 9th, the Chillicothe VA will be hosting our inaugural “Honoring Veterans Festival”.  We are moving away from the indoor ceremony and into a format we believe brings attention to our Veterans in a way that is fun, engaging, and truly promotes fellowship within the community.  We have partnered with multiple community partners to make this festival a reality.  Ripe with live music, catered food and a litany of outdoor entertainment, we want to use this as a true springboard to how we honor our Vets!

            We haven’t deviated entirely from the ceremony format, however.  Veteran guest speaker, Dr. Brian Montgomery (U.S. Army) alongside our medical center director, Ken Mortimer, will drive our ceremony.  We have also partnered with McClain High School, from Greenfield, OH and the Ross County Honor Guard to help facilitate the event. 

            Following our ceremony, the festival will play host to live music, great food (provided by the Knights of Columbus and “Up in Smoke” food truck), a staff led chili cook-off, over 100 feet of military memorabilia, and a souvenir photo booth!  All of that will be flanked by multiple information booths handing out VA information, as well as our Medical Mobile Unit, offering free flu shots to our Veterans.  The ceremony begins at 11:00 am, on November 9th in the Building 9 parking lot on the Chillicothe VA Medical Center campus, and the festival will run until 2:00 pm.  This event is open to the public.

            The Honoring Veterans Festival isn’t the only event for the VA that week, as we will be in the community every day from 9th to 13th, with the following events.

            November 10: General Mills in Wellston, OH.  This is an enrollment event running from 6:00 am to 8:00 am AND 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

            November 11: Our Medical Mobile Unit will be stationed at Texas Roadhouse in Chillicothe, OH, giving free flu shots to our community Veterans in conjunction with free meals to Veterans, provided by Texas Roadhouse, from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.

            November 12: Representatives from the Chillicothe VA will attend the Circleville AMVETS Post 2256, for their Veterans Day luncheon, with VA literature and enrollment/eligibility information from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm.

            November 13: We will have VA representatives at the Veterans Appreciation Event at the Golden Corral, in Chillicothe, OH, giving free flu shots to our community Veterans in conjunction with free meals to Veterans, provided by Golden Corral, from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

            We hope you will join us in honoring our Veterans on November 9th, on the Chillicothe VA campus as well as throughout various events within the community!

If you have any questions, please contact our Public Affairs Office at (740) 773-1141 ext. 17080.

Alan Graves, Public Affairs Officer

Phone: