Ninth annual American Heroes Dinner held to support veterans
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — The Chattanooga Convention Center recently held the ninth annual dinner to honor American Heroes.
General John F. Kelly, USMC (Ret.) was the keynote speaker, benefitting the Honoring the Sacrifice Foundation.
“The advice I’d give all Americans is that we should never ever ever forget what their military service members, veterans have done for them and for this country,” Kelly said.
One of Chattanooga’s most patriotic events, The American Heroes Dinner serves as the signature fundraising event for the Honoring the Sacrifice Foundation whose mission is to provide support to catastrophically wounded post-9/11 veterans and their families.
“All veterans… anyone that certainly goes to war, is changed by that war. But on top of that, you have young men and women come back very seriously injured– losing limbs, and they need some help… quicker than sometimes the bureaucracy can provide it,” Kelly said.
Sgt. Andrew Smith, Army (Ret.) formed the foundation in 2013 after his service in Afghanistan.
“It was supposed to be a nine-month deployment. I was injured about two months into that, lost both my legs, and came back home with tons of support from our community,” Smith said.
He wanted to form an organization to support other injured veterans and their families.
“When I was injured, my wife and I just received so much support from the community. Built us a home, from a foundation called Steps to Hope, just awesome amount of support that kinda got us through some very terrible times. And we would look around and see other veterans not with that same amount of support– for whatever reason. So, when we got back home, we decided to start our own foundation. Started off small with some gift cards, and it’s grown into this dinner and golf tournament every year to raise more money to help in more impactful ways,” Smith said.
With a dedicated team of volunteers, the husband-and-wife duo are assisting other post-9/11, severely wounded service members and their families, just as they have been supported during their journey.