Weekly Report 🇺🇸
Memorial Day Ceremonies NEAR YOU | TVLC | Governor's Proclamation
Please take the time to attend a Memorial Day observance near you. There are plenty to choose from. Here are 3 I know about personally.
26 MAY 2025 11AM - Oakland Cemetery- Veterans Section
Oakland Cemetery, 838 North Bronough Street, Tallahassee, FL 32303.
Press release 5/21/2025
We welcome all patriotic folks to join with us, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3308, as we hold our Memorial Day Ceremony this Monday May 26th at 11:00am at the VFW Cemetery on the corner of Fox Rd. and Old Blair Rd. (take Rivers Road off Crawfordville Road to Fox Road).
This year’s ceremony will be much like those in the past.
A very talented Drum and Fife band will be playing patriot music before and after the ceremony to get everyone in the mood for the service.
We will be honoring our dearly departed veterans who died in service to America with the laying of wreaths at stations for each branch of the military.
As usual the Leon County Sheriff’s Color Guard will join us thus adding to the dignity of the event. Plans also include a bag piper, singer, and bugler.
Respectfully yours,
Frank Roycraft
Commander,
VFW Post 3308
Tallahassee National Cemetery will be hosting a solemn Memorial Day Ceremony on Saturday, May 24, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. The ceremony will consist of wreath laying, accompanied by speeches, a moment of silence, music, rifle volley, and the playing of Taps. The cemetery will provide limited tent covered seating. Volunteers will be on-hand to assist with parking and to assist those in need with getting to and from their vehicles. Everyone is welcome to join us for this remembrance ceremony.
Respectfully,
Eugenia “Genia” Simmons
Cemetery Director
Tallahassee National Cemetery
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
(850) 402-8941
Good Evening, Team! I've been asked to re-send this link for people who
missed it (in their spam folder last week): We can finally forward to you
the link for the WCTV interview that broadcast last month
<https://www.wctv.tv/2025/05/01/local-nonprofit-protecting-veterans-interest
s-promoting-justice-tallahassee/>
https://www.wctv.tv/2025/05/01/local-nonprofit-protecting-veterans-interests
-promoting-justice-tallahassee/ tease Susie, John Linney, Craig Winger and
me for looking too serious.
At today's Legal Clinic at Lk Ella (Thursday), our volunteer team totaled 22
(including 6 attorneys, assisting 19 Veterans and family members, plus 5
Vets in phone responses who couldn't come to the in-person clinic! Veterans'
legal issues this week again included different county and state
jurisdictions outside Leon, and requests included child support problems,
driver's license reinstatements, divorces, housing, benefits, probation
issues, real estate, consumer fraud, wills... And thank you for the
consistent volunteer administrative work at the front door and
computer/files tables, Khalid, Valerie, & Margaret, with Susie throughout
our Clinic sessions. Kudos to Khalid Shafi, Eddie McMillian & Dexter White
for the food distribution Wednesday to Homefront, Grace Mission, City Walk,
Kenwood Apts, and Good Samaritan.
MEMORIAL DAY SERVICES: Saturday, May 24 at 1 pm out Apalachee
Pkwy at the National Cemetery (John Folsom is the speaker); Monday, May 26,
at Oakland Cemetery (near the Governor's Mansion) at 11 am (American Legion
Post 13/ Ed Hood is the speaker); VFW's Cemetery service is also at 11 am
(5801 Fox Road).
Nationally, specific budget cuts to our country's "safety net" were passed
through their first chamber of Congress overnite, despite the bipartisan
opposition from citizens, agencies and elected officials from both parties.
VA's job freeze and cuts are still rolling out, despite more Vets getting
added to the health care system under the expanded disability benefits laws
enacted in recent years.
Reprise: Locally, VA's housing program is soon to have a vacancy (a
retirement) with no opportunity for new staffing, and medical folks have now
been warning Vets of lengthy delays in referrals to specialists, etc: Call
your friends who work for the federal VA to let them know they're
appreciated and give them your contact info in case they lose their VA cell
number amidst the funding cuts, layoffs and firings that are including
probationary employees, as well as former military Veterans in a variety of
specialties (and the latest projections target some 84,000 VA jobs and
programs to be cut!) And be sure to let us know about parttime job
opportunities for Veterans on subsistence, as well as any emergency housing,
shared rentals, etc. since housing is still scarce and services are delayed
via waiting lists. A FLORIDA SENATOR SUMMARIZED VA'S NEEDS AGAIN (on the
Senate floor): more than 952,000 claims have been pending longer than 125
days, including 23,900 in Florida; the backlog is still more than 241,000
including claims that go back DECADES. (The VFW-supported bill he sponsored
did pass the legislature and is on its way to the Governor SB910/HB277).
What else?
Thank you,
Dan Hendrickson, for the Tallahassee Veterans Legal Collaborative
