Camp Jack Reacts to Veterans Day Celebrations

Camp Jack says they were blown away by the community support for Veterans Day.

The Jack Williams Veterans Resource Center, or Camp Jack, was behind the 2021 Veterans Day Celebration on the Historic Harrison Square on Thursday.

The day started at Harrison High School with a special Veterans Day Program which boasted Camp Jack Director Matt Russell as the keynote speaker. Russel said, “those kids were so supportive of the veterans. They sang to us, they had this great video presentation and it was a very moving moment.” In his speech to the students Russel said he spoke about the gift that they wake up with every morning, that gift being freedom. “It wasn’t a gift they earned, it was their birthright,” Russell said. The students were very responsive to that sentiment. They were also very responsive to Russel’s comparison of them as a student body to the military. “… then I told them they are also a band of brothers in that school. A band of brothers and sisters and they need to have each other’s backs because in just a few years this precious gift of freedom will be theirs to preserve and protect.”  

Click "Play" to hear Matt Russel talk about his reaction to the Veterans Day Celebration. 

Callie Mondy is a Camp Jack volunteer and spokesperson, but she is also the commander of the American Legion Allen-McKinney Post 44. She said Camp Jack was “blown away by the support.”

Mondy was the keynote speaker at the Veterans Day ceremony in front of the Boone County War Memorial on Thursday. She talked about how proud she and other veterans are to have voluntarily signed up to do what they did in the service. “We were glad to do it and we are still glad to do it,” she said. She also remarked that she has never met a veteran that has regretted their service.

She recognized the National Anthem singer at the ceremony, Rihanna Prescot, who is a Marine Veteran. Mondy said, “She sang our National Anthem for us and just blew it out of the park.”

Click "Play" to hear Callie Mondy recount the ceremony at the Boone County War Memorial. 

Veterans Day wrapped up with a parade that Mondy said totaled almost forty entries. “Everyone had a great time. The route was perfect, the weather was perfect, it really couldn’t have gone any better,” she said. The parade featured the honor guard of the Boy and Girl scout troops from Harrison, the Bergman and Harrison High School marching bands, multiple classic cars and rat rods, local fire departments, and multiple civic organizations.

Mondy said, “To be honest, I might have cried a little bit watching the parade proceed out the route because of how much love and support we’ve had. Everyone was so excited, and it was just heartwarming and overwhelming is really just the best way I can say it.”

The work for Camp Jack hasn’t slowed down post Veterans Day. Friday morning the volunteers are Camp Jack were hard at work preparing Christmas lights to decorate downtown Harrison for the annual Christmas Parade coming up on November 29.