This is an image of our Challenge Coin and another picture of some of our local dignitaries who received a coin for their role in helping us achieve our goal of creating the Watauga County Veterans Memorial. Challenge Coins may be purchased for $10.

The photo shows: HCCMOAA Member George Brudzinski, Town Clerk Nicole Harmon, HCCMOAA Member Ben Covington, Boone Town Manager John Ward, Boone Mayor Rennie Brantz, and HCCMOAA Member Fred Schmitt.

Over the previous 14 years, the High Country Chapter has helped coordinate activities among the various veterans-oriented groups for Memorial Day and Veterans Day. At each event we typically have 400-500 attendees in the Boone Mall. This year, due to limitations imposed on gatherings, we had to reduce the size of group activities. We are very grateful that many of you have supported these ceremonies in the past. For Memorial Day, we held a smaller ceremony at the Watauga Veterans Memorial in Boone. We were restricted by the state of North Carolina, and by common sense, to fewer than 10 people. Although we had a smaller group, we were able to have a moving experience in honor of Memorial Day. Please check out our video of the Memorial Day Ceremony. And, for Veterans Day, we were able to have a slightly larger audience at the Veterans Memorial. Both ceremonies were held in conjunction with the Watauga Community Band. The Memorial Day event was recorded by Steve Franks, with the Watauga Community Band. He was able to interleave associated video and audio clips to create a very moving video. The Veterans Day event was recorded by ASU TV including pre-recorded music from the Watauga Community Band. Please take a look at the video here: Veterans Day Ceremony. We are hopeful that in this year we will once again be able to host much larger events at the Boone Mall. When this occurs, please consider attending these ceremonies.