Heroes to SEAs the Day across community

Credit to: Coastal Point, Kerin Magill

Since 2013, for more than 200 wounded veterans and their families, the week after Labor Day has meant a kind of new beginning, rather than an ending.

Since that year, Bethany Beach and surrounding communities have welcomed post-9/11 veterans for a week of rest and relaxation, as well as a chance to bond with other families with similar challenges to those they face when returning from combat with injuries.

This year, Warrior Beach Week kicks off on Tuesday, Sept. 2, with a welcome luncheon at the Mason Dixon VFW Post 7234 near Ocean View.

“We are ready to go,” said Colleen Kellner, an Operations SEAs the Day board of directors member who handles all programs for the week. “We are full-steam-ahead for next week,” Kellner said.

As happens each year for the event, the long driveway to the VFW will be lined with homemade signs welcoming the families.

During the week, the families will be able to choose from a long list of activities and events, including kayaking, golf, a barbecue, children’s activities, boat trips and horseback riding. Spouses and partners who serve as caregivers for the veterans in their households can also attend “caregiver coffees” to support their unique needs. All of those activities are free of charge.

Each family stays in a home that has been donated for their use for the week. They are given grocery bags full of staples, tailored to their family’s needs, to help stock their refrigerators for the week. They are also given coupons for area restaurants and businesses.

When they arrive, the families are told they can participate in as many group activities as they want, or they can choose to just relax on the beach, Kellner said.

Families who come to Bethany Beach for Warrior Beach Week are chosen by a group led by Operation SEAs the Day board member Bill Scott. This year, 18 Very Important Families (VIFs) will be coming, along with four Alumni Families, said Scott, who serves as the organization’s veteran coordinator.

Alumni Families are those who have attended Warrior Beach Week as VIFs and are invited back to serve as a support system for this year’s VIFs, Scott said.

Scott is a retired master sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, having served 24 years.

“I’ve been to just about every conflict” in those years, Scott said. At retirement, he was serving as operations chief for the U.S. Marine Corps headquarters.

He said that when service members are no longer on active duty, one of the hardest adjustments in returning to civilian life “is the camaraderie. They don’t know anyone who understands what they’re going through,” he said.

At Warrior Beach Week, the families “have an environment where you have 20 other families, other individuals who have been through the same thing you have, if not worse,” Scott said.

Families very quickly form bonds during the week, and those connections often continue between the families once they return home, he said.

Warrior Beach Week could not happen, Scott said, without the strong support of volunteers, who spend months preparing for the families’ arrival. Debbie Cobb, who coordinates the housing, “does a miraculous job” of matching homes with families, he said.

Each family answers questions about their family’s needs before arriving, Scott said, such as “Do they have a service animal?” and “How many children are coming?” Cobb then makes sure homes hosting service animals will allow pets and ensures there are enough bedrooms to comfortably house each family.

“One year, we had a family of 11 — husband, wife, eight kids and one in the oven,” he said.

Luckily, the volunteers had a six-bedroom house to offer them.

Another important group of volunteers are called “host families,” which are different from the housing donors. Host families meet their VIFs at the welcome luncheon (and have often contacted them even before they arrive) to ensure that they are comfortable, answer any questions about accommodations and help make sure their VIFs make the most of their week in any way they can.

Each family is given an “events guide” for the week — which looks like a glossy, 30-plus-page visitor magazine and includes such details as times, dates and places for scheduled outings and events, as well as general information about things to see and do while they’re in the area.

One of the most anticipated events of the week will occur on Friday, Sept. 5. Veterans and their families will board school buses in front of Sea Colony and will be joined by a parade featuring firetrucks, Delaware State Police motorcycles and other vehicles. Some families will be riding in classic cars as well.

The parade will leave Sea Colony at 4:30 p.m. and arrive at the Freeman Arts Pavilion complex about 20 minutes later. The driveway into the Bayside community, where the arts complex is located, will be lined with the same kinds of signs that greeted the families at the VFW earlier in the week.

The public is again being encouraged to line the parade route and cheer the veterans on by waving flags and donning patriotic attire.

After they arrive at the Freeman complex, the families will dine under a tent there. The dinner will be hosted by Michelle Freeman, CEO of Carl M. Freeman Companies, whose late husband, Josh Freeman, was a veteran who served in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret.

Later, they will be special guests at a performance by Face 2 Face: A Tribute to Elton John and Billy Joel.

The public can also support Warrior Beach Week by purchasing Operation SEAs the Day merchandise at the Sea Colony Beach Shop, Beach Life Gallery in Bethany Beach, Water Lili on the boardwalk in Bethany Beach, at the Bethany Beach Boardwalk Arts Festival on Saturday, Sept. 6, or by donating through the organization’s website, at www.operationseastheday.org.

Tickets to the Sept. 5 night Face 2 Face performance were available still available mid-week at www.freemanarts.org.