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AVMC Fundraising Donation to the Winfield Veterans Home.

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Group searching for more veterans to help.

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Posted: January 30, 2015 - 5:01pm

SAMANTHA FOSTER/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

World War II veteran Raymond Valdez sits in his new wheelchair Friday while his wife, Alice, and members of the Topeka chapter of the American Veterans Motorcycle Club stand behind him.

 

By Samantha Foster

samantha.foster@cjonline.com

 

 

        As World War II veteran Raymond Valdez settled into his new wheelchair Friday afternoon, he gave his approval.

“It’s comfortable,” he told the family members and veterans gathered in his East Topeka home.

The wheelchair was donated to Valdez by members of the Topeka chapter of the American Veterans Motorcycle Club.  They contacted multiple organizations before they found out they could help Valdez.

Valdez had been using a walker, but it limited his mobility because he had to worry about falling.

“He likes to be outside,” said his wife, Alice, who added she worried about him falling outdoors and constantly looked out the windows to check on him.

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       Now Valdez will be able to sit outside in his wheelchair. The wheelchair also will easily fold up so Valdez and his wife can go shopping together or run other errands, they said.

The veterans with the motorcycle club thanked Valdez for serving his country.

His daughters said they didn’t know much about their father’s military service because he didn’t like to talk about it. Only recently has he become willing to tell his grandsons about his experiences, they said.

Valdez spoke briefly to his fellow veterans about his service as a medic in the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, telling about a close call with a sniper’s bullet and how he disliked the Territory of New Guinea.

“I saw too many bad things” in the Philippines, he also said, shaking his head after recalling atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific.

 

Valdez had received the Bronze Star for his service.

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AVMC Fundraising Donation to the Winfield Veterans

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