For the past 13 years, the Wake Foundation has sponsored VAlentines for Veterans, a musical event honoring veterans for their service and sacrifices.
This year, the event will be held at the Black River Coliseum as it has in past years and is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The concert will feature performances by the Oak Ridge Boys and Ashley Campbell.
Robert Wake, founder and CEO of the Wake Foundation, is passionate about honoring and assisting veterans.
“I’m a Purple Heart recipient from being wounded in combat in Iraq and so I’ve traveled quite a bit during that time for the Veterans Commission, doing boots on the ground, educating people on what to expect out of veterans when they were coming home,” said Wake.
Through that, he has realized many events for veterans could not be held without sponsors, like the Golden Age Games, winter sports clinic, wheelchair games, summer sports clinic and deer hunts.
“We formed the Wake Foundation in 2010, started out very small and now we are in eight different states and we’re a very large organization,” he said.
Wake said he expects this year’s concert to be standing-room only.
“Ashley Campbell, who is Gen Campbell’s daughter, she sang with him for the last three years of his life on the road. She’s incredible, an incredible banjo player, guitar player and singer. Then the Oak Ridge boys, we had them at an event in Texas in October and they were incredible,” Wake said.
The Poplar Bluff Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution will also be set up at the concert in hopes of receiving sponsorships and donations to raise money for Wreaths Across America.
This year, the DAR ladies have set an ambitious goal to place wreaths on all of the 759 headstones of veterans in Memorial Gardens.
Brenda Yarbro, DAR treasurer and sponsorship chairman of Wreaths Across America, said they will need to raise $11,000 to reach this goal.
The Valentine’s For Veterans Concert is no small affair. Wake estimates the cost for the event to be around $85,000.
Wake said he wanted to express how important this event is to veterans and their families. “It brings thousands of families to the area and our veterans into the coliseum so we can honor them and show them how much we appreciate their service. It’s for our veteran families and we’re grateful for that and to our community sponsors,” he said.
Tickets can be picked up at the Black River Coliseum, the VA, or the Stars and Stripes Museum. Limit 4 tickets per veteran, must show military ID.