NVAO Members,
Everything is falling into place for an excellent 2023 National Veterans Awareness Ride.
1. As of today (4/25/23), all of our VA visits, school visits, memorial services and organizations providing meals are open and looking forward to seeing us.
2. We have participants from a half dozen states attending the NVAR First Aid Class in Michigan City, IN on Sunday May 7. If you would like to attend, please contact Jerry Conner (jerry.d.conner@comcast.net) for more information.
3. Roger Granbois, our Webmaster, has been doing a great job keeping the website up to date with any changes that have taken place. Since the Ride Books have been produced, the website (nvao.us) will be the best place to look for any last minute revisions. If you check the website frequently, you may need to refresh any pages that you’re looking at. During the NVAR, we’ll provide ride books with the Ride Schedule and Motel Schedule and we’ll go over any changes that will have taken place since the ride books were printed.
The biggest revision (to date) to the Ride Book is on Sunday May 28, in Washington, DC. As you’ll notice in detail on the website, everything on Sunday is optional but we’re offering four opportunities of things to do (besides sleeping late and/or heading home).
a. If anyone would like to go back to Arlington National Cemetery, lay a flower at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and/or spend more time at any of the special sites at the cemetery, Steve Moore will take you (ETD 8:00am).
b. If anyone would like to visit the brand new National Museum of the U.S. Army, Jerry Conner will take you (ETD 8:30am).
c. The U.S. Air Force is 15 minutes from the hotel in which we’re staying. This would be on your own.
d. Rolling To Remember through DC will be staging at the Pentagon parking lot from 7am to noon, at which time the Ride will begin. This would be on your own.
4. If you have a chance, stop by your local Walgreens or CVS and pick up a few boxes of the 15 minute covid tests. Bring them with you when you join the NVAR, we’ll put them into the Chase Trailer and use them on the NVAR if necessary. They are free.
5. Blake Hutchinson forwarded the following link to us. It is an announcement that a Veteran named Ken Potts has died. Ken was one of the last two survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack on the USS Arizona. Thanks, Blake.
6. As we’ve mentioned, if you are a new participant or are bringing a new participant to the NVAR, on the website and in the ride book, there are sections that describe what the National Veterans Awareness Ride is all about and how we engage the Veterans we meet in the VA facilities.
That’s it for now.
Be Careful out there.
The Board of Directors – National Veterans Awareness Organization
