From left, veterans Richard Norman, Jerry Labrie and Domenico Fratamico enjoy each other’s company at the monthly veterans luncheon at Easthampton Congregational Church. (Shawn Rychling / The Republican/TNS)
Connections. Making connections with each other and with the community.
That’s one of the primary goals of the monthly veterans’ lunches held at the Easthampton Congregational Church.
The lunches are a co-production of the Easthampton Coalition for Veteran Wellness and Building Bridges Veterans Initiative
John Paradis, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and Iraq War veteran, is a volunteer with the Easthampton Coalition and Building Bridges – and one of the driving forces behind the monthly lunches.
“The essence of this is that … we’re striving to get back to the essence of what it meant for us as service members,” Paradis said. “A lot of us … were part of something where you had this deep sense of connection and meaning and purpose, and now (back in our home communities) we’re just trying to find our way. What we can do here is build a new community and give people hope and a connection.”
At the April lunch there were close to 50 veterans on hand, enjoying ,baked pasta, salad, garlic bread and desserts.
“A good meal and the camaraderie,” is what Domenico Fratamico enjoys about the lunch. The Springfield resident served 29 months in Germany.
Jerry Labrie, from Chicopee, was drafted into the Army in 1969. He spent his time in the service as a heavy-truck operator in Fort Hood, Texas.
“I enjoy meeting veterans and sharing stories,” he said. “Without something like this, it’s hard to meet them just around town where you live. This is a nice meeting place, especially because it’s other veterans.”
Richard Norman, who lives in Northampton, said he served in the Air Force in Vietnam from 1967 to 1971 on the Cam Ranh Bay air base.
“It’s a beach resort,” Norman said without a hint of sarcasm. “I was there three years, six months, eleven days. Not that I remember.”
As for the lunches?
“It’s fun, it’s a good group of guys,” he said. “We solve all the world’s problems, and the price is right.”
The free lunch is served every first Wednesday of the month at the Easthampton Congregational Church, 122 Main St. The meal was being served in Northampton until November when it switched locations.
“We were in Northampton at the World War Two Club, and then the club closed,” Chad Wright, the associate director for operations at Building Bridges said.
Then we were in the bowling alley in Northampton, at Spare Time, and while they were a gracious host, it was kind of a smaller space, and our numbers were dwindling. Easthampton is a short jaunt down the road, and we are able to help more veterans.”
Chad Wright places a pan of pasta on the stove after he took it out of the oven for April’s veterans lunch at Easthampton Congregational Church. Wright is a veteran and associate director for operations at Building Bridges. Holding the garlic bread is Ken Blanchard, Air Force veteran and member of the Easthampton Rod and Gun Club, sponsor of the April lunch. (Shawn Rychling / The Republican/TNS)
Wright says as the Easthampton numbers have grown, the church has come through with making a larger space available.
Founded in 2015, Building Bridges now holds monthly meals at 15 sites across four states – Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
‘You get some veterans that we call ‘circuit riders,’” Wright said. They can go to the Hadley meal, the Chicopee meal, the greenfield meal, the South Deerfield meal and Easthampton. So we have several veterans that go to three or four meals a week.”
The connections can sometimes go beyond just the monthly meal.
“For an example with the Greenfield meal, we’ll have the veterans, besides coming to the meal, they’ll meet up in a different veteran’s driveway and they’ll set up some lawn chairs, and they’ll have coffee and donuts. So people are making connection outside of the meal.”
In Easthampton, Building Bridges has forged a natural partnership with the Easthampton Coalition for Veteran Wellness, which has been in existence for a little over a year.
“We spent a lot of time kind of defining our mission and figuring out what we wanted to do, trying to kind of find our footing in the community and figure out what the community needed.” Emma Reilly, a coalition volunteer and social worker for the police department, said. “I think one of the main things that our coalition decided early on that we wanted to do was build community, reduce isolation, bring veterans together, and Building Bridges already kind of had that same mission.”
The coalition and Building Bridges are reaching out to the community at large as well, with opportunities to sponsor a monthly lunch.
The April meal was sponsored by the Easthampton Rod and Gun Club at a cost of just $250.
Ken Blanchard, a past secretary of the club and an Air Force veteran who served stateside in Austin, Texas, is still active with the Easthampton Rod & Gun Club and was looking for a volunteer opportunity in helping his fellow veterans.
“I got involved with Building Bridges and the coalition.” Blanchard said. “The Rod and Gun Club has a day for veterans every year with a meal, fishing, and horseshoes and cornhole. We get about 20 veterans, and they have a blast. So the opportunity to sponsor a meal came up and I went to the club and told them we could do this for $250, and they said ‘OK, great’ so here we are.”
Any organization interested in sponsoring a meal can get more information on the Building Bridges’ website.
Lin Chambliss, a Gulf War veteran, manages a 19-bed facility for veterans in Easthampton and is impressed with the efforts of his community coming together.
“Working here in town for the Veterans home, this partnership with Building Bridges and East Hampton Coalition for Veterans Health and Wellness is such a great initiative.” Chambliss said. “It brings the community together. Many veterans in Easthampton that don’t know each other, and no one can really help a veteran more than a veteran.”
Wright says that it’s mostly Vietnam-era veterans that attend the meals, and they want to push for younger veterans who may have served in Iraq and/or Afghanistan.
“The reason why we’re trying to get the younger veterans involved is because the older veterans have told us that the Vietnam veterans especially, that if they had something like this around the 1970s, 1980s when they came home, it would have been beneficial for them,” Wright said.
Wright emphasized the difference between World War II and the military conflicts that came later.
“We want not just veterans, but we want nonveterans to celebrate the veterans within their community. And if you think all the way back to World War II, the war kind of ended all at once, and everybody came back to their respective countries and kind of had a worldwide party, and everybody was welcomed back into their communities,” said Wright. “Every conflict since then really hasn’t had, like a main stopping point... And so it’s not that big celebratory welcome back, and then everybody kind of is welcome back into their tribe or their society. We try and do that here.”
©2024 Advance Local Media LLC.
Visit masslive.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
