I am the Spirit of ‘45 Lee County chairman and am going into my fourteenth year of holding this event which honors our WWII veterans. Meeting these wonderful men and women of our greatest generation has been an honor and a privilege, however, it also comes with sadness in having lost so many of these men and women over the years. While I had announced, in 2023, that it was my last year of holding this event, I feel that I have to bring it back for the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII.
In the past, receiving calls from new WWII veterans left me with the feeling that I still hadn’t gotten the knowledge of this initiative out far enough. I sincerely feel that more members of our greatest generation are still out there and still haven’t heard of this initiative to honor them.
I am asking for your help, once again. Please don’t make this another year where family members tell me that they wish they would have heard about this while their WWII family member was still alive. It happens too often. Their stories need to be heard and preserved. Their legacy needs to live on. That being said, for the first time, I have invited family members of the WWII veterans to speak on their WWII family member’s behalf. This is the best way I could think of to have their legacy live on for generations to come. This is what Spirit of ’45 is all about…