On Aug. 14, four local veterans were awarded Quilts of Valor by CompeerCorps of Lebanon County during its monthly Coffee & Camaraderie Breakfast event.
The free event, which is held at 9 a.m. on the third Friday of each month at Heisey’s Diner, Lebanon, is hosted by CompeerCorps and various sponsors for Lebanon County veterans.
The veterans who received Quilts of Valor were Jack Cantwell, William Mentzer, Bob Koch, and Peter Heagy. The event also included a presentation by a team of volunteers from the Quilts of Valor Foundation (QOV), whose mission is to “cover service members and veterans touched by war, with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor.”
Quilts of Valor is a national organization with 600 groups in the country, including 22 in Pennsylvania. The organization was founded in 2003 and began counting quilts given to veterans in 2011. To date, QOV has distributed 389,145 veterans quilts.
Compeer program manager Julie Baum said that the breakfast event has continued to grow in popularity.
“We started several years ago with eight veterans. Now, we host over fifty veterans a month,” said Baum. “They all look forward to the coffee and camaraderie we provide for them and the other veteran resources we share.”
CompeerCorps is a nonprofit organization that supports veterans with a variety of programs and resources. For more information about CompeerCorps and the Coffee & Camaraderie Breakfast, as a veteran or potential sponsor, call 717-272-8317 or visit compeer-lebanon.org.
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