VFW buys La Salle veterans home residents smart TVs to FaceTime with family

“This is an amazing achievement and will greatly improve the quality of life for each veteran not only today, but for years to come.”

—  Steven Kreitzer, superintendent of the La Salle County Veterans Assistance Commission

If you’ve bought a poppy from Veterans of Foreign Wars this past year, chances are you contributed to the statewide organization’s project to buy smart TVs for residents at the Illinois Veterans Home in La Salle.

The VFW, the VFW auxiliary, American Legion and the Illinois Disabled American Veterans teamed up to buy 175 40-inch smart TVs for every resident.

“We were told more than 30 veterans had died from COVID, and there were 100 more infected,” said Jay Davis of the VFW post in Batavia, speaking of the November COVID-19 outbreak at the home. “We asked what they needed, and they said the biggest issue was residents not being able to communicate with their loved ones. That’s a big part of the healing process.”

From that point, Davis, with the help of Angela Davis of the VFW auxiliary in Batavia, Rob Bailey of the VFW in Montgomery and Mike Breyne, quartermaster of the VFW in Batavia, organized a project to buy the veterans smart TVs.

The smart TVs provide veterans the ability to talk and see family on the screens through FaceTime.

“The impact has been significant,” said Laurie Emmer, state VFW commander. “Residents are able to see their families on the large screens instead of having to use smaller phones or share computers.”

Raising $45,000 was ambitious, but VFW and other veterans organizations across the state, including some private donors, jumped at the chance to be a part of it, Emmer said.

Jay Davis said a good portion of the money came from Memorial Day poppy sales.

“Nearly all the money raised was from poppy proceeds,” Jay Davis said. “One little flower can make a difference when you consider there are thousands of them sold across Illinois.”

The La Salle facility has received two TVs to make sure everything works correctly but now will begin to receive the remaining 173 TVs.

“This is an amazing achievement and will greatly improve the quality of life for each veteran not only today, but for years to come,” said Steven Kreitzer, superintendent of the La Salle County Veterans Assistance Commission. “We applaud the efforts of the VFW to organize such an amazing and impactful drive.”

Speaking about the inspiration for the project, Jay Davis said veterans take care of each other.