Operation We Care honors Eastern Shore heroes

Wednesday evening out in Mardela, Heroes’ Haven gathered together to honor our Eastern Shore heroes so, we decided to take a trip to greet them before they headed off on their ten mile bike ride from Mardela to Sharptown.

Ocean Pines native, Sean Triplet has served his country twice, in Iraq, as a specialist combat medic and Wednesday he stood side by side with other heroes to be honored for their work.

“A lot of them have been down here more then once,”explained the event’s organizer. ” And the love and hospitality our community offers keeps bringing them back.”

Like many others who fought overseas, Sean came home with with post traumatic stress disorder  and a lack of resources. Then he  found Hero’s Haven, an organization that serves law enforcement, veterans, and firefighters who have been injured in the line of duty. This annual three day event includes; hunting, a day at the gun range, and a motorcycle escort from Mardela to Sharptown, where folks stood in front of their homes to greet people like Jeremy Rogers. Rogers is originally from Iowa, currently lives in Virginia, and feels right at home on Delmarva.

“I can’t believe that there’s a community like this in America that loves us veterans so much and what you guys put out for us,” said Rogers. “It brought me to tears.”

Rogers served in the Marines for 24 years as a chief warrant officer. He tells us, events like this make being home worth it. The event was organized by “Operation We Care,” a Salisbury non-profit that sends care packages out to troops.

“We’d like to say thank you,” said Jeff Merritt, of Operation We Care. “Thank you for coming down to visit with us. We hope you come back we love having our wounded hero’s come down.”

Hero’s Haven is in the process of raising capital to continue to give back to our hero’s who have given us so much. If you’re interested in getting involved visit their webpages at:

http://www.operationwecare.org/