Adrian, MI – Veterans in the Woodworking for Warriors group in Lenawee County will have more resources for their new facility in Tipton thanks to $26,674 raised at the Gleaner Life Insurance Society’s Flag Exchange.
The flag exchange earlier this month gave out more than 200 new American flags in place of old ones. The event offered participants a chance to donate to help the woodworking veterans’ group, which recently gained non-profit status and is opening a workshop outside Tipton.
“We never imagined this much coming from this,” said Woodworking for Warriors President John Abbey. “We’ve been self-funded up to this point.”
More than $8,800 was collected at the flag event at Gleaner’s Adrian headquarters. It was matched by the Joseph Wildberg Fund for Veterans, which was founded by Gleaner employee Elly Sager in memory of her father and is part of the Lenawee Community Foundation. It also was matched by Gleaner Life.
The veterans’ group met for several years at Adrian’s Sam Beauford Woodworking Institute but, due to growing student enrollment there, the veterans needed a new facility. The group calls what they do “therapy disguised as woodworking.” Some veterans travel from as far as St. Johns, Bloomfield Hills and mid-Ohio.
“People came together and they discovered something beyond woodworking and found community,” Abbey said. He added that the new facility will enable more veterans to participate. “We’re pleased to be associated with this fine group of veterans,” Gleaner Life Interim President and CEO Kevin Marti said. Donors were entered in a Gleaner drawing for a gift basket of items made in Michigan or elsewhere in the U.S. The winner was Adrian Township’s Gary Andrews, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran.
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*media submitted to WLEN News. Featured image is Gary Ward receiving new American flags from Gleaner Life’s Kristin Reid*