All gave some. Some gave all. Some never stopped giving.
The Sedona Detachment No. 1237 of the Marine Corps League has been in the charitable spirit in the Verde Valley.
Since 2015, the group has given out $33,450 in charities. This includes $4,000 to Toys for Tots, $1,000 to Sedona’s 9/11 memorial and, if needed, $2,000 to the traveling Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Wall, scheduled to arrive at Posse Grounds Park on Wednesday, March 30.
“This is a group of veterans, not just the Marine Corps League, that is bringing this to town,” Monte MacConnell said. “We’re going to have a booth set up there …. It’s going to be an emotional three or four days.”
MacConnell, a league member and Vietnam combat veteran, said that the wall has special meaning to the veterans in the league. Several local league members have connections to the Wall through their Vietnam service.
He related what the wall meant particularly to him.
“I lost 10 percent of my basic [training] school class — over 40 guys — in Vietnam, between 1968 and 1970. There are several of my friends on the Wall,” he said.
He went back to Vietnam in April, bringing his family, to “go through some of that stuff.”
He had his daughter with him, whom he had adopted while he was still in-country during Vietnam. MacConnell left the service at the end of 1972 at the rank of captain.
The league does primarily invest in charity work for other veterans groups but also helps out clubs and nonprofits such as the Sedona Elks Lodge and the Verde Valley Caregivers Coalition. The money is spread throughout the Verde Valley. Members give suggestions as to which organization to donate to. The prospective donees are investigated and then approved based on need. The league also has a scholarship list.
“It’s a pretty wide-ranging charitable program and it’s only limited by the imaginations of our members,” MacConnell said.
The money is raised at the Festival of Trees in Tlaquepaque, a Share a Bear campaign — where two bears are bought with the idea that one will be given to a child in need — and a Village of Oak Creek golf event along with other, smaller fundraisers.
