Flag Day celebration features food, fanfare
Nearly 80 residents of a senior living facility in Edina helped The Salvation Army celebrate Flag Day on June 14. The event featured food, fanfare, and American flags.
Major Robert Doliber (pictured above), general secretary for The Salvation Army Northern Division, opened the event at 7500 York Cooperative by expressing The Salvation Army’s deep appreciation for veterans and the sacrifices they’ve made. Nearly half of the men in the room indicated, by a show of hands, that they were veterans.
Doliber and his wife, Major Rae Doliber, went on to explain all that The Salvation Army does to help veterans and other people in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Some attendees already knew much about The Salvation Army, including an audience member named Harry, who told a touching story about his dearly-departed wife.
Harry explained that before he met his wife, she’d given birth to a baby girl at Booth Hospital in St. Paul – a former Salvation Army maternity hospital for unwed mothers – and gave the baby up for adoption. Thirty years later, she and her daughter were reunited after they both wrote to The Salvation Army in search of one another.
That connection gave Harry a stepdaughter and an entire second family that he otherwise would not have known.
“Their family has become our family,” Harry said proudly, while displaying a picture of a little girl who is ultimately his step-great granddaughter (pictured).
In addition to celebrating Flag Day – which commemorates the adoption of the U.S. flag in 1777 – the event featured live old-time music by Colleen Raye and Jennifer Grimm, as well as pastries baked by Ashley Smaller, a woman who started a bakery with help from The Salvation Army.
“The Salvation Army is honored that residents of 7500 York Cooperative joined us in celebrating Flag Day and all it represents,” Major Robert Doliber said.
Please join The Salvation Army by volunteering or making a donation to support your local community.