Off on More Hospital Tours

The Legion's tour of the VA hospitals continued this week with trips to Zablocki VAMC in Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Veterans Home in Union Grove, short trips for those of us from this part of the state.

Commander Wayne & I, along with Hospital Representatives Bonnie & Dan from Zablocki met with the Hospital Director and heard about all the things that are going on at the facility.  After a very informative session we got to tour Building 123, a domiciliary, and meet one of the therapists.  The tour gave us an opportunity to see areas where our Legion Family could do something special.  More information on that later! 

From there we headed over to the building that houses the Christmas Gift Shop and the Poppy Shop.  A look at the Christmas Gift Shop showed great progress in making the space more organized and better to manage. 

The visit to the Poppy Shop featured one of the veteran poppy-makers giving a demonstration of how those beautiful little flowers are made.  Dale is very adept at this painstaking craft and showed us how time-consuming the task really is.  He told us that he can make approximately 350 per day.  Commander Wayne got a lesson in poppy-making and actually produced one that he is now wearing.  Poppy Shop Supervisor Karen and Assistant Shirley made us feel very welcome in this small but very important area of the facility.  Shirley worked very hard to provide the group a wonderful tasty lunch and a chance for a little conversation and relaxing before we headed off to our next visit.

It was a beautiful November day and the 30 minute trip to Union Grove was a pleasant one.  Hospital Representative Marcie greeted us in the lobby of Bolen Hall and escorted us to our meeting with the Commandant.  This was also a very interesting meeting.  After hearing about the construction going on around the facility, the Commandant led us on a very interesting and informative tour of the well-tended buildings. 

We were also able to pay a visit to the portion of the facility that cares for the homeless veterans.  The director gave us a very informative presentation on her area of the facility and how these veterans are being assisted. 

We also took a short ride over to the cemetery to see the beautiful grounds and new monument.