Trail’s Travel Center in Albert Lea, Minn. created a special gesture on Veteran’s Day to honor those who have served. NATSO connected with Cathy Purdie, director of marketing and strategic development for the location and Ken Fluth, Iron Skillet manager, to learn more about their event.
Trail’s Travel Center provided 79 free buffets to veterans, who were thankful to be honored and to be invited to gather and share their memories with others, shared Purdie.
In addition, the location created displays to honor all branches of the military. Fluth created a fallen soldier’s table, which was the most commented-on area of the display.
"We felt it was important to create the display, not only to show our respect for our military, but also to remind people to never forget the ones we lost,” Fluth said. “It was awesome to hear from the veterans who said how much they appreciated us setting up the fallen soldier table and honoring those who didn't make it back.”
Fluth said there are specific requirements regarding what is placed on a fallen soldier table and that everything has a meaning. “It was very interesting to learn about the fallen soldier table,” he said, adding that many veterans wanted to sit by the table when they were eating.
Fluth said he hopes next year’s event is even bigger. “It was a great day, because of how grateful the Veterans were, and it was a lot of fun talking to all of them,” he said.
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