Third Annual 4th of July Celebration to Begin at 4 p.m.

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Community events, Fourth of July

Happy Hour on June 24th Pulls Together a Group that Couldn’t Stop Talking!

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Happy Hour

Liz Cocke, writer and photographer

It was a lovely evening for Happy Hour on Tuesday night – with a warm breeze on the rooftop terrace of the Scott Building and several groups of volunteers, including Team Rubicon – a veterans group targeted to disaster relief and community service of all types. Between old veterans as residents, and new veterans visiting, and neighborhood residents just interested in talking – there were conversations going all over the place.

Come and join us as we join the residents on the last Tuesday night every month to enjoy an evening of soda, beer and pizza – not to mention good jokes, bad puns, fun music and great conversation. And on summer evening with a warm breeze we can throw in a lovely evening out on the rooftop terrace.

Friends, Residents Have a Ball at Monthly Jingo Get Together

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Jingo

Everybody is a winner when Friends get together with residents for their monthly Jingo game. Our volunteer coordinator, Lori Lincoln, took the first-ever Friends “selfie” at yesterday’s game with Mr. Harold Schultz, just after Mr. Schultz was victorious in one of the games. Also pictured below is veteran Phyllis Bradford, who kept on winning and winning Jingo games. She is flanked on the left by Erin, a first-time friends volunteer, and on the right by Tamia Datcher, a long-time Friend. We thank our volunteers, but above all we are grateful to our veteran friends for all they have done for us!

Friends Arrange Donation of 100+ Boxes of Girl Scout Cookies at Soldiers Home

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Community partnering opportunities

One of our favorite things about Friends of the Soldiers Home is establishing connections that didn’t exist before. We were happy to assist Girl Scouts from Sacred Heart Church’s Daisy and Brownie troops in donating more than 100 boxes of cookies to the Armed Forces Retirement Home in D.C. on June 10. Julia Malloy, a Brownie, and Vivian Cronenberg, a Daisy, unloaded the cookies onto a cart in the Soldiers Home parking lot and then presented them to the Home’s volunteer coordinator, Carolyn Haug, as seen in the photos at right and below. The girls enjoyed a brief tour of the facility, met some residents and learned some of the ways their Gift of Caring cookies would be enjoyed in the months to come. We thank the girls’ mothers, Catie DeLong Malloy and Kelly Cronenberg, and all the others affiliated with the Girl Scouts troop, for making this wonderful donation happen.

Save the Date for July 4th at the Armed Forces Retirement Home

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Fourth of July

Friends, Band Make for Good D-Day Mix At Soldiers’ Home

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Concerts, Tributes

Story and photos by Liz Cocke.

Friends of the Soldiers Home was thrilled to help organize a concert for veterans of the Armed Forces Retirement Home-Washington on Friday, June 6th. The event commemorated the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, with music provided by the Cedarville High School band from Michigan. The music moved residents and those attending the concert to remember all who served on D-Day – and to recognize the several World War II veterans who were attending. The students enjoyed speaking with the residents about their service, and about the history of the Home. Residents enjoyed hearing from the students about their performance the previous day at the World War II Memorial. This is the second concert in two weeks that Friends arranged with Music Celebrations International, following a Memorial Weekend event.

Military Trivia Spurs Another Fun Get Together of Friends, Veterans

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Saloon NIght with Friends

Photo caption: Veteran Jim Grant, right, challenges an answer by trivia master and Friends volunteer Zach Hartman at the monthly Saloon Night With Friends event (Photo by Lori Lincoln).

Story by Zach Hartman

On Tuesday, June 3, the Friends of the Soldiers Home hosted another Trivia Night at the Defenders’ Inn on the Home’s DC campus. The fact that the evening featured military trivia only fueled the growing popularity of trivia as an occasional feature of the monthly Saloon Night with the Friends, an event that brings together veterans and community volunteers. The evening featured six teams and tough competition as residents and Friends slugged it out for the honorarium of Military-Know-It-All. When the dust settled, the team that named itself “We’re Not Dead Yet” came out on top. “Team Mushy”and “The Homebodies” tied for a close second. In reality, everyone was a winner as fun and friendship was had by all!