MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—Middletown Elks Lodge 1097 held its sixth annual Veteran Stand Down on Oct. 4, giving clothes, food, and assistance opportunities to veterans.
The event was held at the Middletown Elks Lodge on Oct. 4. It started with the Pledge of Allegiance, the national anthem, and a presentation of the flag by the Middletown High School JROTC. Veterans were then invited to eat a free breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausages, French toast, and coffee.
A Veteran Stand Down is a community-based event that provides assistance to veterans in need. At the Elks Lodge, veterans could come and take items they needed, such as shoes, socks, shirts, pants, jackets, sweaters, wheelchairs, walkers, books, DVDs, and many other necessities.
Teresa Mayer, a leading knight and Veterans Committee Chair at Middletown Lodge 1097, was the lead organizer of the event. She told The Epoch Times that during September, the lodge collected about $10,000 in donated items for the Veteran Stand Down.
Mayer said that the event is important because “a lot of [veterans] don’t have the funds to buy this type of stuff.”
“So this is helping them out to live and get by in life.”
The charity event was staffed by volunteers from the Middletown Elks Lodge 1097, Middletown High School YMCA and JROTC, American Legion Post 1181, Cornwall Girl Scout Troop 21, and Middletown Girl Scout Troop 213.
The Elks Lodge provided free gun locks, which are especially important for veterans because of high suicide rates, and assisted veterans in signing up for honor flights to Washington and the New York Elks Camp Bristol, an Elks camp that organizes weekend camping for veterans.
The New York State Fallen Military Memorial was on display in the Elks Lodge, taking up two walls of the main hall. The display remembers New York state residents who gave their lives in service in Afghanistan and Iraq and places a special emphasis on those who lost their battle with PTSD. Justine Crowley-Duncan owns the display and travels to events throughout the state.
Rick the barber from Currier’s Barber Shop in Middletown offered free haircuts to veterans. Organizations such as the Veterans Crisis Line, the Elks Drug Awareness Program, Orange County Office for the Aging, and Heroes, Cowboy & Companions had booths offering to help them connect with social programs, counseling, and exclusive outdoor activities.
Charlie Czochanski told The Epoch Times that he really enjoyed the event and thought it was good that veterans who couldn’t get what they needed could be supported by the community in this way. He has come to the event for several years now. Czochanski served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1960 to 1966.
Korean War veteran Ronald Stumpp told The Epoch Times: “It’s not my first time here, but I think it gets better each time I do come here. It’s fantastic. It really is ... It shows people care; it shows people remember.”
Stumpp is originally from Brooklyn; he now lives in Wallkill.
Good friends John Healey, 81, and Ken Space, 95, also enjoyed the event. It was Healey’s first time at the Stand Down.
“I think it was a wonderful thing for the veterans and everything. With all the stuff they’re getting,” Space told The Epoch Times.
Space was visiting for a fourth year, along with his daughter, Maureen. He shared a story about taking the honor flight from Stewart Airport to Washington.
When they landed in the capital, he said: “Very nice ride. Now I know how it feels to land in a plane. I jumped out of them when I was in the 82nd Airborne.”
Space served from 1948 to 1951.
Healey and Space were born and raised in the town of Warwick, and Space still lives there. Both men enjoyed getting a free haircut at the event, and Space was able to get some much-needed pants.
The Elks’ Veteran Stand Down was attended by about 100 veterans. Next year’s event is planned for Oct. 3, 2026.
