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| OHCC LIVING | JULY 2025 | 29 Village Vets Happy Birthday, America! By the time you read this, you're probably getting ready for the Fourth of July. It's been 250 years since the 13 colonies declared independence from Great Britain — still a young nation compared to much of the world. So go ahead and enjoy your Independence Day cake — you've earned it. Just don't try blowing out all 250 candles! Village Vets Club Highlights: Hot Dog Extravaganza Success Our annual Hot Dog Extravaganza in May was a big hit, and the photos say it all! A huge thank you to the 25+ volunteers who came out to help. We couldn't have done it without you. To keep that momentum going, we're excited to welcome Colonel Susz Clark, U.S. Army (Ret.), as our new Volunteer Coordinator. Interested in helping out? Contact Susz at Qsusz@hotmail.com to join our growing volunteer list. STEP Donations We were equally grateful for your donations of personal care items to STEP (Support The Enlisted Project) — collected the same day of the tragic plane crash in Navy housing. According to our guest speaker, LCDR Owens, your items were put to immediate use. Thank you again for your generosity! VA National Cemetery Presentation In June, we heard from representatives from the National Cemetery. Burial in a VA national cemetery is generally available to veterans discharged under conditions other than dishonorable, along with eligible dependents — spouses, minor children, and in some cases, unmarried adult children with disabilities. Not the easiest subject, but making final arrangements in advance eases the burden on your loved ones. Personally, I'm still hoping for a Viking funeral and a final voyage to Valhalla. Coming Up Next! Village Vets Off-Site Trip: Our annual off-site event is almost here! We're headed to Point Loma to visit the Submarine Training Facility — and yes, we'll board a real Navy sub. Want to join the adventure? Reach out to our tour directors, Mike Welch or Marty Budoff, for details. Wishing you a happy Fourth of July and a wonderful summer. Written by Bob Bechill The reaction from the recent concert on June 1st "Ref lections on Love and Life" have been wonderful. We are so glad that so many people enjoyed our performance. We were blessed to be accompanied by three fabulous musicians. Dr. Michael Munson is a brilliant pianist, and we are so fortunate to have him as our accompanist. Keith Thompson has been playing percussion for several of our concerts, and when he is not amazing us with his amazing rhythms, he is up in the AV booth controlling the lighting on stage and in the audience. A beautiful addition to our cast this year was Adrienne Nims who played the f lute, piccolo and saxophone. She is such a talented musician and her playing added a lot to the performance. If you didn't get a chance to see the concert, it should be available to view, if not already, on the Choral Society website or channel 1960. The recording is the contribution of our fantastic AV crew that man the cameras, record the performance, make sure the sound is perfect, and control the lighting. I would be remiss if I didn't mention our stage manager, Amanda Wright, and our narrator, Helen Sloan. Kudos to all who made this performance successful. Probably the most important person; scratch the "Probably" and replace it with "Without a doubt," is our fantastic director Beverly Taylor. The amount of skill and patience with a bunch of aging singers that she displays at every rehearsal is indeed commendable. She brings us up to a level of expertise that I'm sure a lot of us never thought possible. And she does it with a smile and a great deal of grace. With her guidance, we may even begin to reach the level of her fifth-grade students. At least one can hope. We would love to have any of you who enjoy singing, to consider joining us. We begin rehearsals on the first Thursday in September to prepare for our holiday concert in December. We meet at 10:15 am and rehearse until noon every Thursday. No auditions, just come out and sing. It's a great group of people and music is a lovely way to spend time together. Give us a try. Written by Jack Shabel Choral Society