5th Annual Veterans Day Baskets for VETS a Resounding Success

In honor of our fine women and men in uniform who have served, are serving or will serve this great nation, we filled and delivered patriotic goodie bags to 263 — our most ever! — elderly Veterans in 10 area nursing/retirement homes located in 9 separate cities across 6 area counties! The bags were delivered just in time for Veterans Day! The following counties were represented in our 5th annual event: Douglas, Sarpy, Burt and Washington in NE, and Harrison and Pottawattamie in IA. The following cities were showcased: Bellevue, Omaha, Fort Calhoun, Blair, Herman, Kennard, Tekamah, NE, as well as Council Bluffs and Woodbine, IA. Monetary and purchased item donations more than helped “stuff” the OFCU branded blue patriotic bags with a plethora of fun and useful items.

We exceeded our $3,500 goal as well as exceeded our estimated 240 Vets/bag count. As a result, we were able to add more Vets/bags and purchase more items for inclusion in the Vets bags this year — 263 in total!

To put this into numbers, we’ve grown this year by 23 Vets/bags!

As much as we’ve grown, we’ve stayed completely true to our effort to personalize and provide a human touch at each home. It’s our little way that we can show it’s something we can do to show that service matters and freedom isn’t free. We concentrate on what we can do as a small movement to provide a small, but personal, gesture of kindness that really counts for Veterans and their families.

Our entire Vets campaign is 100% supported by in-kind donations and volunteer support! And 100% of all donations received go directly back to the Vets in the form of the bags and contents therein.

The Veterans at each home were overjoyed when they received their goodie bags, and they also appreciated being remembered for their selfless sacrifice and service to this great nation. We would like to thank all donors, vendors, Veteran volunteers, OFCU employees and members for their graciousness in donating to this important community service campaign! And we also want to thank the administrators, Vets and staff at each home, as they showed open hospitality in welcoming us and supporting this great event for their Veteran residents and widows of late Veterans. We look forward to yet another very successful year in honoring our nation’s Veterans in November 2026!

Our elderly Veterans paved the initial road to protecting our freedoms and all Vets that follow promise to carry that everlasting torch forward so that our freedoms never end, and our Veterans never perish in vain.

A very special THANK YOU to Veteran volunteers and partners: Veteran Ed Lautrup, Veterans Service Officer for Washington County, NE; Chris Byous, President of Omaha Federal Credit Union; Veteran Larry Kucek, Fort Calhoun American Legion Post 348, Fort Calhoun, NE; Veteran Gary Wachter, American Legion-Jackson Peck Post 274, Herman, NE; Veteran Gary Kruse, American Legion-Jackson Peck Post 274, Herman, NE; and Veteran Deb Werhli, AMVets Post #8, Blair, NE; and Jenny Stutte.

As one Veteran recipient from Sunridge Village — a new home added this year — commented, “Thanks so much for the Veterans Day Appreciation bag and the presentation. Sunridge Village fellow residents also were able to see who all the Veterans are.”