WILTON — Shelly’s Hometown Market, 1339 Main Street in East Wilton, has been supporting veterans since 2018 through its R.E.D. Friday program with more than $10,000 given to various organizations as of Friday, Oct. 25.

“R.E.D. is remembering everyone deployed,” Katelyn Gervais, daughter of owner Shelly Gervais said. “We recently decided to bring on representatives from each one of the different organizations that we do. So far, this will be our fourth Friday and we have already raised almost $1,000 with the last three that we have done.

Katelyn served about eight years in the Army National Guard before leaving two years ago. “So I see the side of the veterans where they don’t get as much out of it as they should,” she said. “That is why me and mom are pretty big on this, we want to do as much as we can for the organizations.”

Shelly’s brother was Lt. Col. Michael J. Backus who died unexpectedly in 2013 of natural causes while at work at the Maine Army National Guard’s Camp Keyes.

Every Friday 20% of pizza sales go towards the veteran’s organization chosen to support that week, Katelyn said. “We also, through the whole week have a can out on the counter that we get monetary donations throughout the week,” she noted. “We also have people who offer to throw money throughout the day or whatever towards that. We also sell R.E.D. Friday T-shirts throughout the week and $5 of that sale goes to the organization.”

So far this year, 13 organizations have been supported, Katelyn stated. While R.E.D. Friday is all day Friday, the organization’s representatives are asked to be at the store between 4 and 7 p.m., which is the busiest time of the day, she noted. People can talk with them, ask questions and get accurate answers as they are the experts, she said.

“I think most every organization has had a representative, just one didn’t have one,” Katelyn added.

“Most have sent one or two, they helped make pizzas,” Shelly said.

Honor Flight Maine was the organization supported Oct. 25 and sent six representatives.

“Honor Flight Maine has been in existence 10 years,” Vice Chair Charles Paul of Norway said. “We took six trips this year. 254 veterans that we took down to Washington, D.C. They are from all over the state. What we are trying to do is to expand our footprint so we can get more veterans from the northern part of the state into this trip of a lifetime.”

Most veterans taken to Washington, D.C. now are from the Vietnam and Korean wars, Paul said. “When Honor Flight was originally started, we were focused just on the World War II veterans,” he noted. “Our goal is to get as many veterans to Washington, D.C. as possible. Honor Flight Network, which is our parent organization, has said they are going to expand the program so that we get to take care of our Desert Storm, Iraq, Afghanistan veterans, Cold War.”

The program isn’t going away, it will be kept alive because “a trip of a lifetime is the least that we can do for our veterans,” Paul said. “There is nothing like going down with 50 plus veterans on a trip like this.”

Honor Flight Maine takes donations, holds fundraisers, and reaches out to the community looking for volunteers. Paul noted. “There is a host of different ways to help out,” he said. “It is the least that we can do to donate, volunteer or just be involved. Coming down to see our veterans come home on a Sunday is worth the trip to Portland.”

Three charter flights are planned for next year, one out of Bangor to “hit the north country” and two out of Portland, Paul said. “That will afford us the opportunity to bring 250 veterans down to Washington, D.C.,” he stated. “Dates are not available yet, we are trying to get veterans to sign up. It costs the veterans nothing to go. We ask for a donation from the guardians [a family member or other individual who accompanies the veteran during the trip].”

Flights leave on a Friday morning with veterans touring Fort McHenry and Fort Mead that day. On Saturday, visits are made to WWII, Korean, Vietnam, Vietnam Women’s and U,S, Navy memorials. Arlington National Cemetery is another stop with the day ending at Serverna Park, Maryland.

“The American Legion there just treats our veterans to an absolutely wonderful evening supper,” Paul said. “It makes our veterans feel really special. As they are.”

An early flight Sunday brings the veterans back to Maine where they are “treated to a welcome home parade and other festivities,” Paul noted. “We have so many Vietnam veterans that we have a celebration of donating Vietnam lapel pins to all our Vietnam veterans.”

Paul said the organization has grown. “When you are dealing with charter flights and as many veterans as we are transporting, it takes an awful lot of coordination,” he noted. “We have a great, great team.”

Also at Shelly’s Hometown Market on Friday from Honor Flight Maine were Maureen LaMoira, a board member in charge of volunteer services; Crystal Guerrette, the charge nurse; Heather Emery from Old Orchard Beach; Monique Breault from Brunswick and David Saar from Turner.

“There have been some emotional moments here for me today,” Guerrette said after recalling a veteran she travelled with during a flight in 2019. “He was one of my all time favorite veterans. Smiles from ear to ear every time you saw him. He was so proud to be a veteran.”

Some people wave as they drive by, others honk their horns, Guerrette noted. “There is a big wave,” she enthused.

LaMoira said she rounds up people for fundraisers, coordinates flights, assigns volunteers their duties and helps organize events. “I am from the D.C. area,” she said when asked how she got involved. “When they started Honor Flight, I used to hear about it all the time. We moved to Portland in 2013, then a few years later I heard there was a hub here and I decided to get involved with it. I was a worker bee up until last year.”

“You do a great job,” Breault said.

Saar has gone on seven trips as a guardian. “I volunteered to be a guardian back in 2015,” he said. “Now I fill in at the last minute for a veteran who doesn’t have a family member that can go or something happens.”

For Saar, the most inspirational thing is taking veterans to their monument, “especially now with the Vietnam veterans, the healing that takes place at The Wall [Vietnam War Memorial].”

R.E.D. Friday raised $800 for Honor Flight Maine, according to information provided later by Katelyn.

According to the Honor Flight Maine website, https://www.honorflightmaine.org/, the average cost to send a veteran to Washington, D.C. is $1,000 and there are over 450 veterans on the waiting list. Veterans and those interested in becoming a guardian or volunteer will find application forms on the website.