We had the opportunity to participate in Wreaths Across America again this year. The weather was quite a bit better this year with clear skies and about 50 degrees. The boys saw the presentation of colors and heard an outstanding message from Colonel Fred Johnson, U.S. Army, Retired. Colonel Johnson spoke about the significance of service, both civilian and military, and how important it is to close the gap between civilians and service members to ensure we are all creating a stronger America. It was great to share the experience with the boys. Looking forward to doing it again next year.

Sunday we had the opportunity to visit Mr. Joe Durbin, the director of the Henry County Help Center. We brought a few food donations and received a tour and history of the Center from Joe, a 22 year Navy veteran who has dedicated his life to service. We learned about how a food pantry operates and the substantial need in our local communities. Currently, Henry County Help Center is $30,000 below food and basic essentials inventory for the current need. The boys learned the significance of giving what we can and the importance of building community.

Today we had the opportunity to tour Flight Club 502 at Bowman Field, Louisville KY. A huge thank you to Annabelle, Kiva, Chloe and Will who facilitated an outstanding visit. Annabelle kicked us off by giving the history and purpose of the club emphasizing their focus on providing young people leadership opportunities, entrepreneurship, setting and accomplishing goals, and having a strong sense of patriotism. Our young men were then able to fly a C-172 simulator and preflight a Diamond DA20 aircraft. Will put the guys through the paces in the simulator and Kiva and Chloe shared their preflight expertise.

https://www.flightclub502.org

We wrapped up the day with a discussion on discipline and practical ways in which we can maintain discipline for our mind, body, and spirit. The primary takeaways for the group were to keep a disciplined mind through study and reading everyday. Always work hard in school in order to maintain as many opportunities as possible. Have a disciplined body by exercising everyday and maintaining good nutrition. Be disciplined in our faith through daily prayer and being in God’s word. We then emphasized the value of maintaining discipline and establishing good habits.

Today we were fortunate to be able to visit Caywoodland Farm to help with clearing a fence line from saplings and to get a lesson from the farm owner/operator on the value of growing/raising your own food. A huge thank you to Wes Husband for giving us the opportunity to visit and to Brady Doran for giving the young men a lesson on grit and the importance of hard work. The youngsters were able to get their hands dirty and break a sweat dragging saplings from about 100 yards of fence line to a brush pile. They utilized teamwork and grit to accomplish the mission and celebrated by dousing each other with water.

Today, Ballardsville Fire Department hosted Valor. The young men were given a tour of the fire station including the trucks and equipment, as well as a guided description of a day-in-the-life of a firefighter. They also received a lesson in basic first aid. After the tour, we spoke about the importance of service and who gave us the ultimate example of service and showed us how to love one another. We spoke about how we should all strive to be servant leaders as Jesus modeled for us.

This month we received a weapons handling class from retired Police Detective Keith Simpson. Officer Simpson’s career of service also includes tours with the Secret Service Uniform Division and Louisville Metro SWAT. We ended the evening with a lesson on Respect.

Valor Louisville’s first meeting was a muster for Wreath’s Across America on a brisk December afternoon. In addition to watching the ceremony and laying the wreaths, we spoke about what valor and sacrifice mean and how the heroes at Zachary Taylor National Cemetery embodied these attibutes.