Biloxi VA Medical Center Hosts Mardi Gras Parade
BILOXI, Miss. -- Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System (GCVHCS) employees provided Veterans in the organization's Biloxi, Mississippi-based facilities the opportunity to participate in a Gulf Coast tradition Feb. 24 on the organization's campus.
The GCVHCS Mardi Gras parade, organized by GCVHCS Recreation Therapists Scarlet Cox, Aja Guice and Alona Thompson, involved staff from several GCVHCS areas, all committed to ensuring Veterans at the facility had the opportunity to engage in a Mardi Gras celebration.
“Our Veterans love celebrating seasonal events and we wanted to make sure that they had an opportunity to enjoy the Mardi Gras season even with our CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommendations and GCVHCS guidelines in place,” Cox said. “With only a few weeks to plan, we were just hoping to have around 30 parade participants, but more than 50 organizations showed up making this one of the best parades we have had on campus.”
Participants in the parade included the GCVHCS’ Police, Chaplain and Recreation Therapy Services, as well as local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and American Legions; the Military Order the Cooties; Elks Lodge Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs); area automobile and motorcycle clubs; the Gulfport, Mississippi-based Krewe of Gemini; the City of Biloxi Honor Guard and law enforcement representatives; volunteers from the Naval Construction Battalion Center (NCBC); the St. Patrick’s Fighting Irish Band; The Salvation Army and Veteran families. Cox added that VSOs donated moon pies for throws during the 45-minute parade, providing the nearly 200 spectators the opportunity to participate in a Gulf Coast mainstay.
“Mardi Gras is an enormous celebration throughout the Gulf Coast during this time of year and our veterans deserved nothing less,” Guice said. “Our Veterans have missed attending festive community activities such as this, so we really wanted to make this one special. We wanted all Veterans in our facility to be included and thanks to our wonderful staff we were able to make that happen. Each year we look forward to making this event better than the last and I think we definitely achieved that this year”
Cox said more than 80 Veterans reside at the Biloxi VA Medical Center, and through CDC guidelines and U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs (VA) restrictions, visitation and excursions over the past few years have been limited due to the ongoing global health crisis.
"Community reintegration is one of many Recreational Therapy interventions and a favorite of our Veterans,” Thompson said. “Outings allow our Veterans to maintain a sense of community and ties to our volunteers so even while remaining on campus they are able to get that fulfillment. It took a coordinated effort among many staff members in different areas and we’re thankful that we have supportive coworkers to help facilitate these events. Seeing the delight and joy on their faces is what makes the hard work worth it and why keep doing what we do.”
The Biloxi Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, along with the Mobile, Pensacola, Eglin and Panama City community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) are all part of the GCVHCS, which is headquartered in Biloxi, Mississippi, and provides a variety of medical outpatient services to more than 82,000 Veterans.