Here’s how DeKalb County is supporting veterans

Here are some area organizations have supported local veterans in DeKalb County communities and beyond:

DeKalb County Veteran Recognition Fund

Donate to the DeKalb County Veteran Recognition Fund: A community veterans initiative that aims to save money for the maintenance and future creation of DeKalb County Veteran Memorials and historical sites to honor the past and preserve the future.

Local veteran Michael Embrey said efforts from a DeKalb-based social club helped give him the idea to create the fund.

In 2021, the DeKalb Rotary Club raised about $12,000 to repair the WWI Soldiers’ and Sailors’ veterans memorial clock in downtown DeKalb. However, with area social clubs seeing declining membership numbers, Embrey said he worried about who would finance the maintenance and creation of future veterans memorials.

To that end, the DeKalb County Veterans Recognition Fund was created in October 2023.

“The goal is to really have funds available after I pass, and older veterans” Embrey said. “We’re getting older. When we’re not around we need to make sure there is some funds to help continue on the memory of those (veterans). And the WWI clock on the corner of Lincoln (Highway) is a real treasure for the city of DeKalb.”

The DeKalb County Community Foundation hosts the fundraisers, which are built through tax-deductible contributions from friends, neighbors, businesses and community members. Grants from the Dekalb County Veteran Recognition Fund support public memorials dedicated to honoring veterans throughout DeKalb County.

For information about the new veterans recognition fund, visit dekalbcountyveterans.com. Donations can be made online at dekalbccf.org/donate or by mail to the DeKalb County Community Foundation (on memo line-Veterans Fund), 475 DeKalb Ave., Sycamore, 60178.

Sweets4Troops

Have leftover Halloween candy? Send treats to U.S. armed forces stationed throughout the world in the Sweets4Troops program. Anyone with extra candy can drop off their sweets at fire stations in DeKalb and Sycamore.

Embrey said both fire departments and the Genoa Area Chamber of Commerce are accepting candy and working with him to launch the initiative. He said he usually collects candy in the first 15 days of November, but he’s never sure how much will be collected in a given year.

“Every year is different. We’ve had as little as 200 and one year we had 2,000 pounds of candy,” Embrey said. “It just depends on the year and what groups get involved and want to be supportive.”

Chicagoland Blue Star Mothers/Operation Support Our Troops

An area insurance provider recently collaborated with Chicagoland Blue Star Mothers, a nonprofit group of women who have or have had children in the military, for Operation Support Our Troops. The group collected supplies for holiday stockings for deployed troops.

Sycamore-based State Farm agent Tina Hurst’s office had a box for those items in October, alongside a memorial to her Uncle Dean, a U.S. Army veteran who served in the Korean War.

Chicagoland Blue Star Mothers had approached Hurst and asked if she would use her office as a supply drop-off site. She said that felt like “signs from heaven.”

Her uncle had died days earlier, she said.

“It did feel like one of those penny from heaven moments,” Hurst said. “That was the first military (funeral) service that I had ever been to as well, which happened a few days later, and it’s just really is heartwarming when veterans are honored in that way. And I think we need to do more to support our troops overseas currently. We’ll do all we can.”

Operation Support Our Troops collects items for care packages throughout the year. For information, visit osotamerica.org.