Veteran's Volunteer Project
August 12, 2022
Giving back to community and especially to our veterans is an important and valued part of MSSA’s mission. MSSA is lucky to have so many members with such giving hearts, eager to give back to our veteran’s and community.
This year we were given the opportunity to volunteer at the Chattanooga National Cemetery. The Chattanooga National Cemetery was created in 1863 in commemoration of the Battles of Chattanooga. There are over 12,000 Civil War Soldiers burried on the grounds. Several Medal of Honor recipients,spanning four wars, are also burried/memoralized at the cemetery. Chattanooga is also the only national cemetery that has both World War I and World War II foreign POWs reinterred.
Our time was spent laying (8) pallets of sod, pulling weeds, and cleaning up mulch in their flower beds. Mike Lev said it best, “Our impact was small compared to what we received in return.” However, while it might not have seemd like much, Cemetery Director, Deborah Kendrick said that the work we did in three hours would have taken her staff at least a week if not more to complete. They were truly grateful for MSSA’s kindness and hard work.
“Spending the day honoring our Veterans in the Chattanooga National Cemetary was such a great experience. I was able to learn some history from the directors to start off then right to work laying sod with one of the best groups of people around! The day started out a bit drizzly but ended up being one of the most beautiful days we had in Chattanooga all year! After finishing up several locations we were thanked by the groundsmen themselves who said it would have taken them several days to do what our group did in an afternoon. We then met up for lunch at one of Chattanoogas local BBQ restaurants and really enjoyed meeting new people and seeing some old friends. What a great day!! “ -Colin Woodcook
MSSA would like to thank ThinkSign for their sponsorship of this event. We would also like to thank the thirty-two hard-working men and women who chose to spend their Friday morning working together to honor our veteran’s.
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