Vets Service Office sets VW Fair activities

Independent staff and submitted information

The Veterans Service Office of Van Wert County is working to make this Veterans Day at the Van Wert County Fair a great one for county and area veterans. 

The office will be presenting the Spirt of America Wall in the Commercial Building August 31 through September 6. The Spirit of America Wall is a traveling exhibit commemorating America’s fight for freedom from 1775 to the present day. The memorial wall teaches through a pictorial timeline covering the past 230 years.

Veterans Day at the Van Wert County Fair will be Thursday, September 2. Veterans wanting free admission to the fairgrounds that day and to participate in the events being offered to veterans that day, will need to show their military veteran identification cards or a copy of their Discharge/DD214 document. 

On Veterans Day, all veterans and their spouses are welcome to attend a ceremony honoring them being held at the Grandstand at 11:15 a.m. After the ceremony, a meal will be provided by Gibson’s BBQ at approximately 11:30 that morning on the west end of the Grandstand. 

Following the meal will be horse races, where the Veterans Service Office will determine which military branch holds title and a traveling trophy until next year’s fair. 

From 5-7 p.m. that Thursday — or until the food is gone — the Veterans Service Office is serving ham and bean soup and cornbread to all veterans and their spouses in a tent near the Washington Street entrance of the county fairgrounds.