In one of the largest veterans’ events in the South Coast, close to 200 people came together in Dartmouth in November, to thank, or be thanked, for their service.
The Nov. 1 event brought together veterans and their spouses, town officials and elected officials in recognition of Veterans Day on Nov. 11.
The majority of attendees were veterans, said Maria Connor, president of the Friends of the Elderly, who with Rep. Chris Markey (D-Dartmouth) sponsors the annual event.
In preparing for the event, Connor was surprised to see how many veterans are living in town.
“I didn’t realize that we had so many vets in Dartmouth,” she said. “I had an updated list (of veterans) and there’s a lot of young folks in Dartmouth and to me those are the ones that we should be doing some outreach to.”
Connor said she understands the obstacles to attending a weekday event for veterans who work, unlike older veterans, many of whom are retired. But it’s important for them to be recognized too.
“Even if I have to get another place to put them all,” she said, referring to the full room at Rachel’s Lakeside this year.
“They’re at the top of everything as far as I’m concerned when it comes to saying thank yous over and over,” she said. “It never gets tired doing that.”
The list also revealed a few in town whose service was not known. Dr. Ouida Dowd, for example, has been connected to the event for years as the chairperson of the Dartmouth Council on Aging. She is a professor of nursing at UMass Dartmouth and was well known to Connor and the Friends of the Elderly group, but not as a veteran.
This year, when the FOE learned of Dowd’s service in the US Air Force as part of the Nurse Corps, they asked her to lead the event’s Pledge of Allegiance.
“I’ve been going to this forever and forever. They just didn’t know that I’d served,” Dowd said.
Special recognition was given to Edward Pimental this year recognizing his service to the country in Vietnam and his decades of continued service to the town when he returned home.
Pimental was the town’s emergency management director for 34 years before retiring in 2017. He was on several town boards including Public Works and still works, currently serving as the clerk at Fire District 1.
In presenting a citation to Pimental, Rep. Chris Markey called him a utility man for the town of Dartmouth.
“When I first came into politics in 2010 multiple people would tell me ‘You’ve got to talk to Ed. … He knows everyone and he can give you a sense of what’s going on,” Markey said, adding, “He is truly a guy that I look up to. I respect a lot. I respect his opinions, and I see that he loves his community.”
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