By Jim Newell

Review Editor

The Orion Veterans Memorial got a little extra sprucing up before the Memorial Day ceremony, with 12 volunteers from the Lake Orion Home Depot planting flowers and a Victory Garden on May 22.

Alana Hart, community outreach coordinator for the Lake Orion Home Depot, said the foundation gave the Veterans Memorial a $2,000 grant to cover the costs of a Victory Garden, Salva flowers around the memorials, fresh soil, some new tools and other supplies.

All the “Team Depot” members volunteered their time outside of their work schedules.

“It’s a $2,000 grant, so the veterans can use whatever funds are leftover for supplies and anything else they need at the memorial,” Hart said. “One of the main focuses of the foundation is to give back to those who have served. Not many communities have something like (the Veterans Memorial). I feel like it’s the least we can do.”

Bob Watros, the meticulous caretaker of the Veterans Memorial and member of VFW Post 334, said the veterans and Home Depot have formed a friendship over the years and credits Hart and her team with their willingness to support the memorial.

“They’ve been such a big part of this for the last five years. It’s fun to go into the store because we know everybody now and talk to everybody,” Watros said. “And all of these people don’t want anything in return. They volunteer and they like to volunteer. And I think Alana is a special person. She likes what she’s doing and she likes the people she’s dealing with and you can tell it by talking to her.”

“We had six new volunteers there and they loved it. They had not been to the memorial and it was really nice to introduce them to the memorial so they could see what a gem it is,” Hart said. “We do it because we love to do it.”

Home Depot also purchased a Memorial Brick, thanking Home Depot employees who have been in the armed forces for their military service. There are currently 15 veterans at the Lake Orion Home Depot.

This is the third grant — $12,000 in total – for the Veterans Memorial from the Home Depot Foundation. Previous grants and work have been used for new decking on the pavilion in 2013 and building the raised garden beds in 2015, as well as beautification and supplies, Hart said.

“Everybody likes that Victory Garden. And it’s not what we grow there, it’s the symbol. There’s quite a few vegetables there, but it’s the symbol,” Watros said, adding the veterans will give the produce to people who want, and need, them.

A woman down the road from the memorial had been going to the garden at night to get vegetables. Watros went one night to check on a sprinkler that was acting up and saw the woman.

“And she was thinking that she was doing something wrong,” he said. “I said, ‘Nope, you keep them.’ She needed those vegetables and she was going to come home and cook them.”

For the Home Depot team, giving back, especially to the veterans, is their reward.

“It’s in our values. I truly believe that if you give back to the community the community will take care of you,” said Hart, whose father, Alan Hart, was an Army veteran who served in Vietnam. “That’s really what it’s about. It’s also about touching a piece of your soul.”