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CASSOPOLIS — The Cass County Council on Aging came up with an interactive way to celebrate Veterans Day this year.

The organization has created a webpage on its website for veterans, friends and family members of veterans to share photos and stories from their years of service. Once submitted, the image or story will appear on the webpage for all to see.

“With Veterans Day coming up, we want to do what we can to honor veterans, both past and present,” said COA director of community development Kelli Casey. “We set up a webpage and asked folks to submit photos and stories of veterans close to them. It’s a great way to showcase the many veterans in our area.”

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forcing many holiday celebrations this year to be canceled or altered, Casey and her team were thinking of ways to honor veterans while also keeping everyone safe.

“Normally, we would have a large veterans day meal where we give away free meals to vets,” Casey said. “We just can’t house that many people right now due to COVID, so we came up with this as a way to commemorate Cass County veterans.”

While an in-person event would be the preferred option, Casey believes that the webpage will allow people to learn more about the veterans in the community.

“With Veterans Day events, you usually run into the same people each time,” Casey said. “But with a project like this, someone may learn about people who served that they have never seen before. You can dig a little deeper and learn more about vets.”

Casey said that there is no deadline for submissions, and the COA will continue to update the webpage through Veterans Day and beyond.

“We have 10 on there already,” she said. “We have no idea what sort of response we’re going to get, but we’re really happy with it so far. We’re just trying to spread the word through social media and our weekly newsletter.”

According to Casey, the COA will hold a Veterans Day ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11 at the Lowe Center’s flagpole, on Decatur Road in Cassopolis. The ceremony will be conducted by VFW Post 10704 of Cassopolis and will be followed by a free drive-thru veterans’ meal from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Lowe Center parking lot.

Interested parties are asked to submit veteran photos and stories to casscoa.org/honoring-our-veterans.