The Mansion Theatre for the Performing Arts welcomed hundreds of veterans and their families into their facility on Thursday, Nov. 10, for the 13th Annual Tribute to the Veterans Show.
Following a flag ceremony and the singing of the National Anthem led by The Hughes Brothers, attendees were welcomed by returning hosts Barbara Fairchild and Roy Morris.
The Hughes Brothers also returned to the stage for a set performance before turning it over to Freedom’s Journey with the Freedom Encounter Theatre. Audiences were also treated to the vocal talents of Fairchild and Morris who sang a couple of duets and visited with the veterans in the crowd.
As a part of the morning’s festivities, the event included a special presentation from Camp Valor Outdoors Founder and Executive Director Major John T. Schwent, Jr. USMC (Ret). As a part of his address, Schwent shared how his non-profit organization in Kingsville, Missouri assists wounded veterans.
“Many of us struggle when we come back from our military service acclimating into society,” Schwent said. “So sometimes we’ve got to help with that transition and sometimes it takes years.”
How the organization does that is by recognizing and honoring ill, injured, and wounded disabled veterans, and their families, through adaptive and competitive activities such as guided fishing, hunting, shooting, archery, four-wheeling and campfire visits.
Schwent also spoke about one of their newest programs, which places a focus on those whose military careers are coming to a close.
“We came up with this idea to take 20 active duty guys that are getting off active duty in the next six to 12 months. We decided to take them on a pheasant hunt up in South Dakota. Nice lodge, the guides, the dogs, the commodore, tank chairs for guys that are not quite as mobile and then we found 20 sponsors; business owners, business leaders, civic leaders who wanted to join us on this event. About three hours of the day we’re going to go out and hunt pheasants,” Schwent said. “The whole purpose for it was for these civic leaders and business owners to share with our active duty counterparts that are retiring or getting out in the next six to 12 months with the commitment to help them through their transition.”
Schwent added out of the 20 veterans they brought together for this initial program, there were 18 of them who had no idea what they would do once they returned to civilian life.
“Sadly a lot of veterans struggle through the transition. They don’t understand, how do we parlay our skills into the civilian workforce? I was a marksmanship instructor for 23 years,” Schwent said. “I trained people how to shoot and kill. You know, put the lead on target. Well that’s not a very sought after skill set in the private sector, right. It’s not necessarily just a hard skill, it’s team building. I had a budget, I’m training teams, I was responsible for a million dollars worth of equipment and ammunition.”
Schwent concluded by summarizing a handful of the other endeavors Camp Valor Outdoors has been tackling in recent years.
“We started building tiny homes for homeless veterans two years ago in Johnson County, Missouri. That’s another way to make a difference. We also started a honey bee program for veterans with PTSD four years ago,” Schwent said. “Now we have veterans doing honey bees and in four different states. We provide the bees, we provide the mentor, we provide the boxes and then we take them into the field and show them how to do it.”
At the end of the show, Walmart Managers from across the area took to the stage to visit with the audiences before veterans were invited to partake in a lunch at the Branson Events Center.
For additional information about the annual veteran tribute show visit veteranshow.com or about Camp Valor Outdoors visit campvaloroutdoors.com.
