Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright (middle) greets Richard Jarcho (right) and a local veteran at one of the recent Sloatsburg Veteran Food Baskets held at the Village Municipal Building.

Sloatsburg has become something of a cornucopia for area veterans. Mayor Carl Wright has always advocated for U.S. veterans — from acknowledging local service men and women at Village Baord meetings to celebrating Memorial Day with the annual Sloatsburg Parade, where American Legion Post 1643 leads the red, white and blue festooned way along Route 17.

Grab and go — local veterans are invited to participate in one of the Food Baskets hosted by Sloatsburg at the Village’s Municipal Hall on Saturday, February 13, from 9am to 11am.

Last year, Mayor Wright threw his support behind the Hudson Valley Honor Flight program, which saw five Sloatsburg WWII veterans fly off to Washington, DC for a day of fun and celebration with other Hudson Valley veterans.

This year, Wright has nearly met his match in another supporter of veterans, Richard Jarcho, himself a veteran. Jarcho was a successful businessman in the trucking industry and has given generously of late to Hudson Valley veterans, with Sloatsburg as a base for his veteran food distributions.

On Saturday, February 13, from 9 a.m. through 11 a.m., cheeses and other food items will be distributed to Hudson Valley veterans. All they need do is show up at Sloatsburg’s Municipal Building.

Mayor Wright also helped with the recent West Point Center for Oral History documentation of Sloatsburg WWII veterans.

Sloatsburger George Heller tells a number of colorful WWII stories during a West Point Oral History session.

Sloatsburger and longtime Pine Grove resident George Heller took part in the West Point session with archivist David Siry. You can see Heller’s interview here.

Heller’s WWII adventure sounds like something out of Captain America — he participated in combat infantry air jumps at Normandy before D-Day and near Veghel for Operation Market Garden. And then, during the battle of the Bulge, Heller was hit by German counter-attack shrapnel and seriously wounded at Bastogne, France.