GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Veterans Day is not until November 11th, but November 7th and 8th our armed service men and women will be celebrated in the skies above Grand Rapids with a drone show and free fair.
But the free, two-day event here at 555 Monore Ave NW will be much more than just that.
“[We're] giving, really awareness resource and allowing the veterans to come and display what they have for skilled trades, but also learn about skilled trades, something to repurpose them for, whether it's a job, whether it's improvement or quality of life, that's what we do," President of Creative Community Entertainment Jamal Steward told me.
A fun way to help Veterans connect with resources, and as a veteran himself, Jamal knows how far a little extra help in these areas can go.
"I had to actually had personal and financial issues, that I had to seek certain resources and come to find a lot of these resources that I didn't know about, really helped me out over the last decade or so.”
And now he’s helping pay that forward.
“We bring together those kinds of community services that may not necessarily be at your normal stand downs or those other events," added Stweard. "So we try to bring it right home to the veterans area, like, for instance, here downtown Grand Rapids.”
The other goal for this two-day event is to help raise money through donations to support other veteran groups like the 2028 Military Aerospace STEM Program. But above all, what Jamal hopes comes from this event is a few more thank yous and handshakes for our area veterans.
“For what it is for the different sacrifices that we go through, the things that myself and those others that serve in arms, they it's good to know that we back our country, that we love our country to the point where we will give our lives in order to make sure our freedoms and our statements of community stay within our abilities to hold that and I think really just pride honor and those are the things that we are core values that we really try to keep dear to our heart.”
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