By LOIS KINDLE
If you live in South Shore and have honorably served in the United States military, you and/or your spouse are invited to spend a memorable President’s Day touring Patriot Plaza and Sarasota National Cemetery.
Sponsored by Community Foundation Tampa Bay, the event is free and includes a round-trip, chartered bus ride; guided tour; and lunch at Der Dutchman Amish restaurant.
The bus departs from the Sun City Center Community Association, 1910 Pebble Beach Blvd. S, at 9 a.m. Feb. 20 and returns at 3 p.m. Reservations are required, and spaces are expected to fill up fast. To RSVP, visit HonorTour2023.eventbrite.com or call 813-282-1975 for assistance.
A tour guide gives an overview of the features of Patriot Plaza to some of last year’s participants of the Honor Tour sponsored by the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay.
Members of the 2022 Honor Tour, sponsored by the Community Foundation Tampa Bay, participate in pledging allegiance to the American Flag during a tour of Patriot Plaza.
“This is the sixth year we’ve hosted the honor tour for South Shore veterans and their spouses,” said Wilma Norton, vice president of community connections. “The first year we had about 15 veterans join us. In 2022, we filled two charter buses with 87 participants and have reserved two buses again this year.
“The Community Foundation Tampa Bay is proud to provide this tour as a way to say thank you to our veterans of all ages throughout the South Shore area,” she continued. “We named it the Honor Tour for a reason: it’s to honor their service.”
“The tour is a very moving experience,” added Apollo Beach attorney Damon Glisson, Honor Tour organizer. “People talk on the ride all the way down, but when they get back on the bus, everyone’s quiet and reflective. Then at lunch and afterward, they share lots of stories with each other.”
Norton agreed.
“It’s always an inspiring day to be with the veterans, see them take in the tributes to their service at Patriot Plaza and share stories with each other during the tour and over lunch at Der Dutchman,” she said.
Glisson has been involved with the tour ever since the Community Foundation Tampa Bay president and CEO envisioned it and requested he lead the effort. Having come from a military family, he gladly accepted the role.
WILMA NORTON PHOTOS
A veteran stops to read the verbiage on one of the marble memorials at Sarasota National Cemetery’s Patriot Plaza during the Community Foundation-sponsored Honor Tour in 2022.
“We felt it essential to honor our veterans and their spouses who make great sacrifices during tours of duty,” he said. “Patriot Plaza even includes a couple of memorials honoring families.”
During last year’s event, Glisson recalled a woman on the bus, firmly holding flowers in her hands on the ride down to Sarasota.
“She intended to place them in front of her husband’s niche, but she couldn’t remember where it was located,” Glisson said.
“The cemetery is a huge place, so I helped her look up [where his ashes were interred].”
The Sarasota National Cemetery is at 9810 State Road 72. Its 295 acres were purchased by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from private owners in 2007. The cemetery was formally dedicated the following year and opened for burials in 2009.
Patriot Plaza was completed five years later, thanks to funding from The Patterson Foundation of Sarasota. The plaza seats 2,800 visitors.
For information about either, call 877-861-9840 or 941-922-7200.
