The feedback from these exposures was heartwarming and very complimentary of what Samantha and I wanted to accomplish.
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It also came to our attention that many veterans didn’t deem themselves “worthy” because the title seemed to be calling for a special kind of veteran. That’s not the case. We deem every veteran “special” in that each veteran served our country and agreed to go when and where they were called upon to serve.
So Samantha and I decided we would change the name of our veteran’s section to “Hometown Veterans,” in the hopes that it would attract veterans in the area to participate. And, by the way, veterans who are native to Clark or Champaign counties but no longer live here are also eligible to be recognized.
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Veterans, please consider doing this. We want to share your stories and let Clark and Champaign County residents know about what the contributions made by their family members, neighbors, friends, co-workers and more.
My email is randyark48@gmail.com and Samantha’s email is samantha.sommer@coxinc. We will send you the necessary papers to be filled out, as much or as little as you want, and would also like a photo from your military services and a current photo.
Thank you for your service and we hope to hear from you.
Randall W. Ark is a Vietnam veteran, retired teacher and Clark County resident who helps coordinate the Hometown Veteran feature in the Springfield News-Sun.
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