SaddleBrooke HOA-2 Salute our Veterans Event | Community

Join us for the SaddleBrooke HOA-2 Salute our Veterans Event on Sunday, November 10 in the SaddleBrooke MountainView Ballroom.

Over 250 SaddleBrooke residents attended one of the most inspiring and enjoyable Veterans Day celebrations to honor our veterans you can imagine. It was the dream of resident and Event Coordinator Mike Oberski, accompanied by his wife Linda, to pay tribute to our SaddleBrooke veterans both present and past.

The presentation consisted of our SaddleBrooke Winds and Strings orchestra conducted by Jesus Jacquez, the SaddleBrooke Singers led by Claudia Kistler and Tanya Elias. An opening blessing and Pledge of Allegiance was given by Elaine Beck followed by the University of Arizona ROTC Color Guard and then the National Anthem given by a remarkable singer Debra Prischmann Gryniewicz. A Military poem was recited to the audience by Linda Oberski. The event was centered around two SaddleBrooke community veteran speakers, Gary Monroe and Steve Skeen who shared their military experience. One other interesting highlight was the presentation of two handmade quilts by our own SaddleBrooke Quilters presented as a Quilt of Valor.

Throughout the celebration, there were photographs behind the veterans of their tour of duty as they gave their testimony. At the halfway point, a video that raised the emotions even higher was Toby Keith’s song, “American Solider”. Our event finale was a trumpet solo “Taps”, played by Mark Garko.

Some of the responses back from the attendees were, “I wanted to say I was very happy that I was able to make it to the Veterans event you put on. It was outstanding”. Another compliment, “congratulations on a superb event honoring veterans yesterday… It was perfect. I loved the personal stories, and of course the music was such a gift!” And one last compliment, “FANTASTIC! Carol and I enjoyed it to the max!

We owe so much to the cooperation and efforts of HOA-2 Lifestyle Director, Elizabeth Lawson and her team for set up and behind-the-scenes technical support along with the filming by Roger Carter. Free donations to the veterans in the audience were provided by My Pillow and Allegiance Flag Supply. This total performance was as they say, over the top and truly an honor to present to our community.