What: Memorial Day Ceremony

When: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 at 10:45 AM

Where: New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home in Vineland
Taking Care of Those who Insured our Freedoms.
524 North West Blvd., Vineland. 

Details: The Veterans Memorial Home resident veterans will be joined by fellow veterans, volunteers and home staff to celebrate Memorial Day. The ceremony will include a roll call of the 92 residents who have died in the last year. Volunteers and staff will place a flower at the memorial for each of those 92 veterans. The ceremony will be followed by a picnic lunch.

The New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Vineland, the oldest veteran home still in operation in the country, celebrated its centennial birthday in January 2000. On January 2, 1900, The New Jersey Soldiers Home for Disabled Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and their Wives and Widows (the home’s original name) opened its doors in Vineland. The original residents worked on the home’s farm and helped prepare their own meals. Today the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Vineland is one of three veteran nursing homes operated by the New Jersey Department of Military Veterans Affairs (NJDMVA). The almost 300 current residents receive state-of-the-art, around-the-clock medical and nursing care, rehabilitative and recreational services, special dietary service and other amenities. 

New Jersey, the first state to establish a facility for disabled war veterans, opened the New Jersey Solider Home in Newark on July 4, 1866, to care for disabled Civil War veterans. The Department of Military Veterans Affairs currently operates three veteran homes with a total of 950 beds. The facilities, all located near major roadways, are in Menlo Park, Paramus and Vineland. NJDMVA encourages qualified veterans in need of long-term care to apply now. For more information on New Jersey's Veterans Memorial Homes or for an application call 609-530-6766.