Youths to bring cheer to veterans

A group of 15 volunteers recently spent time visiting veterans at Evergreen Nursing Home, Carson City as an extension of "A Touch of Home," a volunteer effort to recognize veterans and help those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan with packages from home.

John-Henry Lambin, Rachel's brother, started the community service project "A Touch of Home." He was recognized with a Prudential Spirit of Community Award as one of Nevada's top youth volunteers for 2011.

The packages sent to U.S. soldiers serving in war zones contain items such as stuffed bears, socks, hygiene items, sweet treats, books, music, and a personal letter to them.

"Since working on this project," Rachel Lambin said, "we started to find that not only did this make those soldiers very happy that someone would put together packages for them, we found that the disabled American veterans that are housed in nursing homes have been overlooked and often forgotten. It's more or less, out-of-sight, out-of-mind."

So Rachel Lambin and a group of friends brought Valentine's packages and musical instruments to Evergreen on Feb. 6 and put on a musical show to more than 20 residents

"It was wonderful and we had great times talking with the vets and hearing so many stories of their times overseas," she said. "It was wonderful."

The group plans to continue locating these veterans and putting together shows to thank them for their service to the United States.

I hope that you can share this story with the community and hopefully others will want to come and meet these wonderful service men.

Anyone interested in helping bring cheer to active service personnel or disabled veterans can reach the Lambins at TouchOfHome@mail.com