From NorthJersey.com
If a musician or actor can get hundreds of people waiting for them at an airport with screaming fans holding signs, then veterans deserve the same welcome.
A Hero's Welcome is a service provided by volunteers that meet returning soldiers or remains at airports, shopping malls or supermarkets. The leader of the North Jersey chapter and Hasbrouck Heights resident Rose Pagan said the program started when a woman was welcoming her husband home from Vietnam and noticed rock stars getting thousands of fans to turn out at airports.
"Sometimes a military person comes home to no one," she said. "The program sets up welcoming committees throughout the states for them."
The welcoming committee is requested by family or friends of the service person. They notify their local chapter of the flight and time and ask for the welcoming committee.
Pagan said the first welcoming home she did was at Newark airport and nearly 40 people showed up to welcome a 21-year-old home with signs and banners. While they were at the airport, they also welcomed another service member who came home, which wasn't planned. She said one of the welcome homes she did was for British and American soldiers who met overseas and were returning to the states to get married. Pagan said the British solider was so amazed by the welcome.
Pagan said she has been involved with A Hero's Welcome for almost a year and she is actively seeking volunteers. She said a large group of the volunteers are students who receive community service hours, but when they return to school she is short handed.
"We want people to know we do exist and we want people to know they can contact us free of charge and we will get people there for a welcoming home if we can," she said.
Pagan said she first became involved with the organization when her husband's family members in the military were returning home and after watching a documentary on a musician.
"It made me think, if One Direction was coming to Newark Airport, can you imagine the welcome they would get," she said. "Then you have a 20-year-old coming home from serving to no one except maybe his parents. Sometimes their family lives a couple of hours away and they arrive to no one."
Pagan said anyone who is interested in either volunteering or requesting a welcoming committee for a returning service person can contact her at [email protected] and can visit the website http://aheros-welcome.org/.
Welcoming committees can also be requested for a burial of a veteran, the returning of the remains of a deceased veteran, or if a veteran is going to be celebrated or honored they will try to have people there.
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