{"id":70841,"date":"2003-03-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-03-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/middletown-retiree-lauded-as-national-volunteer-of-the-year-by-vfw\/"},"modified":"2003-03-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2003-03-18T00:00:00","slug":"middletown-retiree-lauded-as-national-volunteer-of-the-year-by-vfw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2003\/03\/middletown-retiree-lauded-as-national-volunteer-of-the-year-by-vfw\/","title":{"rendered":"Middletown retiree lauded as national volunteer of the year by VFW"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tMedia Contact: Todd McLeish 874-7892
\n
\nMiddletown retiree lauded as national
\nvolunteer of the year by VFW
\n
\n溏心vlog免费B站 Master Gardening class inspired his volunteerism
\n
\nKINGSTON, R.I. — March 18, 2003 — When Middletown resident Bill Chew decided to take the Master Gardening class at the 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2001, it was a bigger challenge than he expected. <\/p>\n

\t“I had been out of school for a really long time,” said the 70-year-old retired electrical worker. “After each class, I had to study all week to get ready for the weekly exams. It was tough. But I made it.” <\/p>\n

\tLittle did he know that after completing the course and being designated a 溏心vlog免费B站 Master Gardener, his new-found avocation would lead him down a path of volunteerism that would result in his being named the national volunteer of the year by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
\n
\n\t“The guys at my post recommended me for the award about two months ago, and I told them I\u2019m not worthy,” Chew said. “There\u2019s probably 100 people who deserve it more than me. But two weeks ago, I got the call from Washington that they picked me from among everybody in the country.” <\/p>\n

\tWhen Chew retired, he got together with a group of Korean War veterans to erect a memorial at the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter. After three years of effort, they raised $250,000 for the memorial. <\/p>\n

\t“After that, the group of us stuck together. We went back to Korea in September 2001, and we regularly go down to Exeter to do some work sprucing up the cemetery.” <\/p>\n

\tAfter becoming a 溏心vlog免费B站 Master Gardener, he began working at the Veterans Home in Bristol. “We\u2019ve got 25 gardens throughout the whole complex there,” he said, “and we have a greenhouse where we grow a lot of stuff ourselves. The residents especially like that we grow tomatoes. One of the nurses said, \u2018five years ago I was ashamed of how the place looked, but you people have really brightened the place up.\u2019 It\u2019s been a really rewarding experience for me.” <\/p>\n

\tIn addition to volunteering more than 200 hours per year at the Veterans Home and continuing his regular visits to the Veterans Cemetery, Chew helps out at the Seabee Center in Davisville, volunteers at the Marine Reserve unit at Fields Point in Providence, and does gardening work at the VFW post in Cranston, near where he lived for 40 years. <\/p>\n

\t“I\u2019ve got less time now than when I was working!” said the Korean War veteran, who served in the first marine division from 1951 to 1952. <\/p>\n

\tDuring the volunteer of the year ceremony in Washington last Tuesday, Chew spoke before an audience of 2,000 and received a standing ovation. “It was great! And I never would have been down there getting that award if it weren\u2019t for the 溏心vlog免费B站 Master Gardener program.”\n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media Contact: Todd McLeish 874-7892 Middletown retiree lauded as national volunteer of the year by VFW 溏心vlog免费B站 Master Gardening class inspired his volunteerism KINGSTON, R.I. — March 18, 2003 — When Middletown resident Bill Chew decided to take the Master Gardening class at the 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2001, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}