Great Falls — World War II Veteran Howard Jester, 90, was the guest of honor during a ceremony at the Freedom Memorial in Great Falls on Veterans Day.

“It’s easy to recognize active duty military, but most veterans blend into our communities,” said Maj. Gen. Julie Bentz, vice director of the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency, who was the keynote speaker at the ceremony.

“They are our friends, families and neighbors,” she said.

She recalled memories of the people she knew in her life who inspired her to join the military: her uncle, a World War II veteran; her best friend’s father, a Korean War veteran; and a childhood neighbor from where she grew up in Oregon, a Vietnam War veteran.

“People like them answered the nation’s call and blended back into the fabric of the USA,” she said. “Let us remember all who have served, for they are all heroes.”

The call to remember veterans and their stories was a theme echoed by speakers from the Friends of the Great Falls Freedom Memorial. They encouraged the crowd-- including Virginia Delegate Kathleen Murphy, D-31, and Sharon Bulova, chairwoman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, who were sitting in the first row-- to obtain their military relatives’ service records so they could pass on their stories to younger generations.

Sandy Pidgeon encouraged the crowd to take flyers that contained information on how to request military personnel records from the National Archives.

When the ceremony finished, those who gathered at the memorial surrounded Jester, a Great Falls resident, to personally thank him. They may not have ever known that he was a combat parachutist with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division decades ago if his story wasn’t told.

On a Mission: Military Appreciation Monday

For the last eight years, Bob Nelson, a realtor with Keller Williams Realty in Great Falls, has been organizing Military Appreciation Monday. The monthly fundraisers benefit military support organizations and groups.

Our Military Kids, Inc., a nonprofit organization based in McLean that provides grants to children of service members, holds a “very special place in [his] heart,” Nelson says.

The children of parents who were wounded or killed while serving in any branch of the military and children who have parents who are deployed National Guardsman or reservists in the Army Reserve are eligible for the grants, which fund activities that help children cope with the associated stress and anxiety.

“If you can’t take care of the kids of service members, you’ve got a country in trouble,” Nelson says.

Our Military has dropped its grants from $500 per child to $250 per child. This is because there has been a 35 percent increase in applicants, and donations have not caught up to the influx, says Linda Davidson, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit.

Her decision to decrease the grants was to make sure the nonprofit could provide some funding to all of the kids who are applying.

“Word is getting out in the military community and the number of deployments are up over the last year,” says Davidson.

Last month, she was on the Fox & Friends weekday talk show on Fox News channel to talk about how she was forced to cut the grants.

Ken Fisher, chairman and CEO of the Fisher House Foundation, saw the segment and wanted to help. His foundation cut a check for $250,000 and challenged Americans across the country to step up and help too.

“I'm not quite sure how I’ll do it, but I'm hoping to come up with a way to raise $1 million for this great program,” Nelson said in an email to the Connection.

In the meantime, Nelson is rolling out his Christmas Gift Wish List campaign for families of service members who have had a parent wounded or killed while deployed in military service.

“I get names and information of families that have lost parents or have a parent who is injured,” he says. “It’s a way to say thank you to these families for their sacrifices.”

People who sign up for his holiday campaign sign up to adopt a family and buy gifts for them. Last year, the campaign helped 336 kids from the northern Virginia area and all around the country.

While there is $750,000 remaining to reach Nelson’s ambitious goal, Davidson says, donations small and large can make a difference.

She says a quote she heard inspires her to do her work with Our Military Kids. A service member said: “Don’t send cookies, care packages and socks. Just take care of our children.”

“Helping veterans by helping their children is really the best way to recognize and say thanks to our military veterans,” she says.