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Community Corner

Tying Yellow Ribbons One Way of Honoring Military

The East Hampton Town Council has promised to support a proposed project to welcome home veterans called the "Yellow Ribbon Program"

Ann McLaughlin presented a proposal to the East Hampton Town Council to implement a program to welcome home veterans. McLaughin told the council all she was asking for was their support. It will not cost the town any funds.

The response from the town council was very positive with chairwoman Melissa Engel saying, “You let us know and we will come.”

Vice chairman John Tuttle asked, “What else can we do?”

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Many in East Hampton have voiced concerns that war veterans have been coming home to a lack of respect and honor after risking their lives. One might think that this is no big thing in a small community, but at one point, Citizens Helping Active Military Personnel (CHAMP) was sending out as many as 15 care packages to soldiers from this area.

Some of them have already come home. McLaughlin’s grandson Sgt. Arron McLaughlin has completed a tour of duty in Iraq and recently returned from a very difficult tour of duty in Afghanistan.

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“Many of our veterans came home to nothing, some were even frowned on and I'm sure they would welcome an opportunity to help change that,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin has asked Sgt. McLaughlin, who is a member of the Connecticut National Guard, to be the Honorary Chairperson of the program.

The program the way McLaughlin has it planned would include tying yellow ribbons around the tree in the center of the village.

“To start, we would like to have a ceremony around the tree in the Village Center and tie yellow ribbons around the tree with the names of the servicemen and women serving overseas; perhaps family members could do this. These yellow ribbons will serve as a reminder to everyone passing by that we have heroes out there fighting for us,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin plans to send out letters to all the organizations in town explaining this program and asking them for a contact person.

“When we know a service person is coming home, each contact person from the group would be called. They in turn would contact their respective members to attend the ceremony,” McLaughin explained.

If possible, they would like to have a small welcome home program with citizens lining the street waving flags. If it is not possible to have a ceremony the day they come home, it would be done at a later date.  McLaughlin suggested they might have the military person cut his or her ribbon off the tree.

The CHAMP organization that sends care packages to the military personnel every month has a privacy policy that keeps them from sharing the names of personnel they know are currently serving in war areas.

“I respect their policy. We are going to ask CHAMP if they would contact the military family and ask the family if they would like to participate in our Yellow Ribbon program. Then we would work with these families to plan the ceremony. I'm sure with the help of families and friends working together we can make this program a success” McLaughlin said.

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