NVAO Members,
Welcome to the holiday season. We hope that each of you is doing a little something for the Veterans in your area. As we have mentioned in the past, a lot of you have shared emotional stories about stopping in at a Veterans Home for a few minutes to brighten the day of a Vet who really appreciated being remembered. Or some of you have helped you neighborhood, town or region in other ways. If you give back to your community in some way this holiday season, let us know. We’d love to hear about your experience.
Now, onward with this NVAO Update:
1. Attached are a couple of photos of Veterans on Veterans Day being awarded NVAR medals by their children and grandchildren at a ceremony at a school near Chicago. Thanks to Kristi Buster for organizing the event and sharing the photos.
2. As we mentioned in the last NVAO Update, the 2024 NVAR Motel Schedule is posted on the NVAO website (nvao.us). The prices, locations and phone numbers of the motels are listed Always remember, when you make your reservations tell them that you want your room from the NVAR block of rooms. If you’d like to save some money, contact a buddy and share rooms. Also on the website is the contact information for the NVAR State Coordinators and Ride Staff. Please feel free to contact any of these people if you have questions or comments about the ride.
3. Attached is a spreadsheet with updated contact information for the National Veterans Awareness Organization members. Thanks to those folks who shared new postal addresses, email addresses or phone numbers with us. If you have new contact information, please let us know and we’ll keep updating the contact sheet so you’ll always have the latest information. (Please contact Jerry Conner for the latest Spreadsheet)
4. The State Coordinators have completed the 2024 Ride Schedules for their states. We’ll let you know when we get the Ride Schedule for the full NVAR posted onto the nvao.us website.
5. As you recall, in the last NVAO Update, we said that we wanted to make a new NVAR Challenge Coin and we asked you to forward to us any photos that you had taken of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A big “Thank You” to everyone who sent photos. With the photos, we sat down with an artist and developed a beautiful new coin. The front of the coin continues to be the logo of the NVAR. The reverse side of the coin features a close up of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Attached is a photo of the reverse side of the coin. You’ll note that the tomb and the trees in the background are outlined in gold, the sash across the wreath says NVAR, when you see the actual coin you can easily read the inscription on the front of the tomb: “Here rests in unknown glory an American soldier known but to God”. The colors are more vibrant than those shown by the photo shot by an amateur with the coin resting on his couch. Also attached is a photo of all three of the NVAR Challenge Coins. The front of each of the coins is the logo of the NVAR. The reverse side of one is the POW-MIA logo, the reverse of the second is the Defenders of Freedom image, the reverse of the third is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Each of these Challenge Coins will be available for purchase for $10 apiece from the merchandise trailer during the 2024 NVAR As you may know, we normally do not sell merchandise on-line except in unusual circumstances. Since several folks who are not going to be on the 2024 NVAR asked to buy some of the coins, we decided to open up the sale of the coins to the entire membership. If you would like to buy one coin of any of the three through the mail, it will cost $17 ($10 for the coin, $2 for the bubble envelope and $5 for mailing). If you would like to buy two coins, the total cost would be $27 ($17 for the first coin and $10 for the second (the second coin can be sent in the same envelope for the same postage). If you want three coins the total cost would be $37 ($17 for the first coin and $10 for the second coin and $10 for the third coin). The wooden display piece is not for sale. Buzz made that to be used on the chase trailer to show all three coins.
If you want to buy one to three coins, please send a check made out to NVAO for the appropriate amount to Jerry Conner, 1032 Dinsmore Road, Winnetka, IL 60093. If you want to buy more than three coins, contact me and I’ll get you a price (The price of more coins will remain $10 apiece and we may still be able to used the same size envelope but the postage cost to mail more than three coins will go up a bit. My phone number is 847-446-3926 and my email address is jerry.d.conner@comcast.net.
6. Attached is a photo of Gary Croft receiving a thank you gift from Jerry. Gary has retired from his responsibilities as Illinois State Coordinator. For many years, Gary has done a terrific job organizing all of the activities in Illinois Gary has passed the reins to Ken Richardson. This past May was Ken’s first NVAR as Illinois State Coordinator and he did a great job leading us through Illinois with the police escorts, the memorial service, the gas stop and the meal. Thank you Gary and Ken for your work for the National Veterans Awareness Ride.
That’s it for now.
Be careful out there. Never forget.
The NVAO Board of Directors
