AARP Las Cruces Chapter Honors Veterans With Special Delivery to New Mexico Veterans Home
The AARP Las Cruces Chapter found a special way to honor New Mexico’s veterans this past Veterans Day -- bringing some comforts of home to the New Mexico State Veterans Home in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Currently there are 77 residents living there.
“It was something we felt strongly about doing,” said Dave Lynch, chapter president and AARP New Mexico volunteer state president. “Especially since we couldn’t do anything in 2019 due to the pandemic. So the Chapter decided this year to adopt the state Veterans Home.”
The Chapter created a committee, putting volunteer Eileen Rosenblatt as chair, charging it to come up with a plan to honor and support the veterans living there. Rosenblatt soon after met with Garrick Wheeler, the home’s administer, to identify the residents’ needs.”
Rosenblatt said, “One need that became readily apparent is reading material. Due to COVID-19, the home’s library was closed because passing books around could spread germs, so residents were in desperate need of paperback books they could keep in their rooms as well as writing tablets.”
“We begin to look into how we could help with that and it really turned into a community activity with several businesses and organizations stepping up to help,” she said.
The committee found out that another organization, Senior Amigos, in Las Cruces, was doing away with its library due to a lack of space and agreed to donate their books to the Veterans Home if the AARP chapter members would pick them up. Rosenblatt also obtained another 100 books donated from COAS, a second hand bookstore. Volunteer Mary Ann Lufkin received another 162 donated books from the Good Samaritan Home and 16 from AARP member Laura Stanovich.
The Chapter also contacted the AARP New Mexico State Office about purchasing lap blankets and the writing tablets and Chapter members donated hard candy.
However, that still wasn’t enough – Chapter members wanted to add a personal touch, and decided to add a letter thanking each resident for their service. Volunteer Honey Devins wrote the letter.
Volunteer Irene Lewis collected all the items at her home where about 12 Chapter members gathered to help organize the items into separate bags for each resident and boxed all the books for delivery to the home’s library.
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the volunteers could not enter the Home but decided to deliver them to administrators outside on Wednesday, Nov. 10, just days before Veterans Day. Volunteers were mindful of COVID-19 practices to ensure everyone’s safety.
“Three vehicles set out on Nov. 10 to drive from Las Cruces to the Veterans Home in Truth or Consequences. A large number of the staff were there to greet us and take in the donations. We also know how hard the staff works so we gave them a holiday basket to thank them for their work too,” Rosenblatt said.
Lynch said, “Many of the veterans came out to greet us. They were appreciative of the donations but also just to have visitors, even at a distance. We stayed there for an hour talking with them. We really wanted them to know how much we appreciated their service and that someone was thinking of them. I think we succeed in that. It made for a very special veterans day not only for them but also for us.”
The Chapter members then took some time to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park, which contains a replica of the Veterans Wall in Washington, D.C., and the Hamilton Military Museum, before heading back to Las Cruces.
