Veterans are celebrated with cook out and movie

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A local funeral home showed how much veterans mean to the community with a cook out. The Wilmington Funeral and Cremation gave veterans a chance to mingle Wednesday.

Funeral Director Doug Bevell said each year they host an event for military veterans and their supporters to talk, eat and check out local veteran organizations. This year showed the movie Honor Flight that was provided by Lower Cape Fear Hospice.

“We do an annual event for our veterans. We are part of the Veterans Funeral Care, we’ve been a part of that since 2007 and we reach out to our veterans and serve that community,” said Bevell. “The community has been mighty good to me since I opened up the funeral home in 2006 and it’s just my way of saying ‘thank you’ to the people in the community for the loyal support that they’ve given us especially the veterans who are a big part of our community.”

And this effort was appreciated by veterans like Dan Salvagno, a retired sailor.

“I think it’s great, people care for each other, help each other, do everything they can for each other, and that’s what this country is made of, that’s what this country is for, you can’t ask for a better country than this,” said Salvagno.

There was also a raffle for a new tablet and 100% of those proceeds will go to the New Hanover County Veterans Council.