Volume 1, Issue 24 NOVEMBER 10, 2023
Honor & Valor This issue of the Oceana Echo is Dedicated to the Veterans of Oceana County.
Thank you for your service and Sacrifice!
Veteran support is Jerry Welcome’s mission By Andy Roberts The Oceana Echo Community Contributor
PERMIT NO 62
PRE-SORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE
RESIDENTIAL POSTAL CUSTOMER PAID ECRWSS BIG RAPIDS, MI 49307
Jerry Welcome owns the Ruby Creek Tavern east of Walkerville, but that’s only part of what drives him. Welcome views his mission as taking care of veterans in West Michigan, and he backs it up with the events he puts on for them yearround. The beneficiaries? Residents of Michigan Veteran Homes in Grand Rapids. Welcome said the home houses around 125 veterans, many of whom don’t have other family. “They’re my brothers and sisters,” Welcome said. “Most of them don’t have anybody else. They’re neglected. A lot of veterans today, they don’t get their right due.” At the Grand Rapids facility, the veterans’ military pension is turned over to the home, which then tends to all the needs of its residents. Veterans’ room and board are covered, regardless of the amount of their pension, and each resident is provided with a monthly stipend for spending money. Among the many events Welcome and his organization puts on is the Thunder in the Creek Disabled Veterans Hunt. Begun in 2007, the hunt celebrated its 17th year this August. That was just the first of what has become many events the Ruby Creek Tavern works on to support veterans. The annual hunt, which is limited to does because of an overabundance of them in the area, equips participating veterans with a personal guide and a personal blind from which to hunt. The event isn’t oblivious to some veterans’ mental health struggles,
either; Welcome said the weapons participants use are never equipped with more than one round at a time, in case post-traumatic stress disorder kicks in after a veteran’s weapon is fired. The veterans get to see the fruits of their success from the hunt, too. Newly fresh meat isn’t permitted in the veterans’ home, so Welcome works with a butcher in Muskegon who turns the hunted animals into salami, which is donated to the home’s residents every few weeks. Welcome’s awareness of some veterans’ struggles comes from experience. He is a veteran himself; he served for 15 months in the Marine Corps, mostly in the Far East. His tour ended six months early, he said, when his father died and he was granted a discharge to return to his mother and two sisters. “To go back to do it again, I wouldn’t hesitate,” Welcome said. “I’d do whatever it took. This is our country and we should be proud of it.” Welcome’s events take place throughout the year, backed by one big fundraising day each summer - the third Saturday in August. “We have a parade and it takes about an hour to go through,” Welcome said. “We have a putt-putt run, a chicken barbecue, a pig roast, a bar, an auction, raffles. It’s really a big day in August. That’s how we raise the money to take them on these different events.” Also this August, he took veterans to the Oceana County Fair, where National Honor Society volunteers pushed the mostly wheelchair-bound veterans through the fair, taking them to the exhibits. (The fair, Welcome said, comped the veterans’ admission fees.)
Jerry Welcome The year 2023 has also featured a trip to Thunderbird Raceway. That trip featured veterans being taken onto the racetrack for a ride, while the Lee Greenwood song “Proud to Be an American” played over the sound system. (Veterans rode in the bus that transports them back and forth from the Grand Rapids home, which is handicap-accessible.) Pheasant and deer hunts in the early fall are also part of the annual schedule. During those times, participating veterans are the only hunters allowed to take quarry, as the hunting season proper doesn’t begin until later in the fall. When the weather gets cold, the events begin moving indoors, but they get no less common. “We get to November and it gets cold and nasty, so we don’t do a lot of outdoor activities for them,” Welcome
said. “I go out to the home and we do bingo games for them. We donate $2,000 into a bingo game, and every single person wins at least $5. The last time we did that, I brought 10 or 15 cases of pop, 40 pizzas, 10 cases of candy bars, and that’s their bingo day.” During Christmastime, Welcome’s organization partners with Rolling Rock Ranch to give the veterans’ home residents a happy holiday season. He said the ranch donates $40,000 to the residents, which goes “straight to their personal funds”, Welcome said. There’s also an annual Super Bowl party, again featuring a healthy portion of pizza, pop and candy bars. As you’ve probably gathered by now, Welcome is a busy man. “Every weekend I’m pretty well tied up,” Welcome said. “All my events are on a Saturday.” Occasionally, the events span even longer. Welcome said a few years ago, his organization, which is completely volunteer, financed an eight-day trip to South Dakota to stay at “a big lodge out there.” The lodge, he said, comped the stay, which included 17 veterans. Welcome joked that the driving for the trip had to take place at night because of all the time that needed to be spent stopping for food during the day. Welcome said disabled veterans aren’t appreciated the way they should be, which is part of why he devotes so much time to them. “People don’t appreciate our disabled veterans,” Welcome said. “They see them and think they’re a bum or something, but that ‘bum’ was a hero in his day. If not for those veterans, those people might not be here. Their grandkids or greatgrandkids might not be here. We should do a lot more for our veterans.”
Equine opportunities abound in Oceana By Paul Erickson The Oceana Echo Community Contributor On Monday, the Department of Natural Resources Equine Trails Subcommittee met at the City of Hart’s Community Center for its November meeting. It also took place virtually, with over 25 attendees in person and online. Equine opportunities from across the state were discussed, with particular interest in opening up the William D. Field Memorial Trail to horses. The trail is now open to horses from Montague to Rothbury, and this discussion took place to consider Rothbury to Hart. The horse trail, so far, is well to the side of the pavement and would also be cleared in that manner for the remainder of the trail north. Horses are preferred to have good footing in natural soils off to the side of the paved trail.
After the meeting, the group rode on the Silver Lake Sand Dunes. This is the third year of the Shoreline Ride on the Dunes. Grace Adventures provided horses for the DNR staff in attendance to experience the Ride on the Dunes. The rain ceased, and the Izzy Magufee on Doc sun came out for a perfect day in Silver Lake. For more information please Friends Facebook page or its website visit the Michigan Shoreline Horse atmichiganshorelinehorsefriends.com.