ODESSA, Texas —
For many, Easter is a time for families and friends to come together, paint eggs, share a meal or reconnect with one another.
However, some veterans end up celebrating holidays such as Easter alone.
“It does happen a lot and with veterans and the holidays they go hand and hand," said Kory Grant, senior vice commander of VFW Post 3472 in Odessa. "Veterans sometimes don’t have families because we’re placed in different parts of the world and our families aren’t always in these different places we go to.”
That feeling of isolation can stick around long after they’ve come back home to the United States.
“Veterans naturally feel as if they sometimes want to be alone. Well, when veterans sometimes come back from doing what we do they sometimes get caught up in the concept of not feeling like we belong. We feel as if we belong only to a certain group,” said Grant.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Making them feel like they're part of the community goes a long way in helping them feel like they belong.
You can do something as simple as inviting a veteran out to something.
"Being able to be invited to a place, it really is a tell sign that you belong," Grant said. "There's a lot of different celebrations that happens around our community that you can invite a veteran to. It could be an Easter celebration; it could be something as simple as going to get a drink down at the local grocery store. Help a veteran out because they've done so much for us."
VFW Post 4372 in Odessa will be hosting an Easter Extravaganza and an Easter egg hunt on Saturday, March 30, at the post from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.