Clark’s Market and Pharmacy Sedona in the Village of Oak Creek presented the Rotary Club of Sedona Village with a check for $2,381 on Monday, Oct. 28. The funds represented 5% of collected receipts during June, with the donation going towards the Patient Discretionary Fund at the Bob Stump Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Prescott.
“The proceeds from the project go directly toward providing the long-term residents of the VA hospital with personal comfort items that are not provided by the hospital,” a Rotary poster stated. These can include such items as shoes with velcro closures for those who can no longer tie shoelaces, or books and puzzles.
Last year, the Rotary Club of Sedona Village raised $15,000 for the fund through Clark’s receipts and the Cornelius Veterans Hospital Benefit Raffle. Over the past 20 years, the raffle has raised more than $250,000. It is named after former Village of Oak Creek resident John Cornelius, who died at 98 in 2017.
Cornelius was a first lieutenant in the 85th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, serving as an infantry commander and staff intelligence officer during World War II who received two Bronze Stars for his time in Italy and North Africa.
The Sedona Village Rotary Club picked up Cornelius’ work and has been selling tickets on weekends close to Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Veterans Day at Clark’s Market. One of the Rotary volunteers working the booth is the club’s past president Rob Schaefer, who was in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps from 1967 to 1990.
“When I retired, I was the chief trial attorney, and I handled all contract litigation worldwide,” Schaefer said. “So I had 46 lawyers that went around the world trying cases against U.S. contractors and some foreign contractors.”
“People need to understand that it is a service,” Schaefer said. “It’s something that you celebrate, literally day by day, what you do actually makes a difference.”
The club will also be holding a Veterans Day event at Sedona Winds.
“Every year, at 10 o’clock on the 11th of November, which is Veterans Day, we have a ceremony and present the colors, parade the colors down past the flagpole outside, and then we raise the flag and Fred Mast from Cornerstone Church has been giving a invocation since we started,” Schaefer said. “After that, we have a presentation of pins to all of the veterans.”
Club members will be at Clark’s again on Sunday and Monday, Nov. 10 and 11, to sell tickets for the raffle.
Meetings of the Rotary Club of Sedona Village take place on the first and third Thursdays of the month at the Sedona Public Library in the Village at 25 West Saddlehorn Road.
For more information, visit sedonavillagerotary.org/page/veterans-project.
