To: Delrico J. Loyd, Governmental Operations Committee Chairperson
From: Jerome Threlkeld, Organizational Development Coordinator
title
RE: Approval to recognize November 11, 2026 as Veterans Day in Genesee County in Genesee County
recommendation
BOARD ACTION REQUESTED:
Approval of a resolution recognizing November 11, 2026 as Veterans Day
BACKGROUND:
One of the Genesee County Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Commission’s goals is to enhance the county’s reputation for being welcoming to all
DISCUSSION:
Members of the Genesee County Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Commission met with community members to co-curate this resolution being proposed to the Genesee County Board of Commissioners.
IMPACT ON HUMAN RESOURCES:
IMPACT ON BUDGET:
IMPACT ON FACILITIES:
IMPACT ON TECHNOLOGY:
CONFORMITY TO COUNTY PRIORITIES:
Inclusive, Collaborative Culture - Members of the Genesee County Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Commission met with community members to co-curate this resolution being proposed to the Genesee County Board of Commissioners
resolution
TO THE HONORABLE CHAIRPERSON AND MEMBERS OF THE GENESEE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
WHEREAS, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the guns of the First World War fell silent, and one year later President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day, observed with parades, public gatherings, and a brief pause in the business of the nation at the eleventh hour, a solemn November tradition that Congress made a legal holiday in 1938; and
WHEREAS, in 1954, after a second world war and the war in Korea had called millions more Americans to arms, President Dwight D. Eisenhower-who had himself commanded the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe-signed legislation renaming the observance Veterans Day, so that the nation would honor its veterans of every era, and in 1975 Michigan’s own President Gerald R. Ford signed Public Law 94-97 returning the observance to its rightful place on November 11, beginning in 1978; and
WHEREAS, Veterans Day honors every man and woman who has worn the uniform of the United States Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, or Coast Guard-more than 15 million living Americans, among them more than 400,000 Michiganders and more than 20,000 residents of Genesee County, including more than a thousand women veterans-neighbors of every race, faith, and background, joined for life by the oath they swore and the burdens they agreed to carry-service and sacrifice that have protected the freedoms enjoyed by every American-and honors no less the families of veterans, who have borne the burdens of military service with strength and resilience and have earned the lasting gratitude of the people of Genesee County; and
WHEREAS, Genesee County’s answer to the nation’s call runs the full length of our history: Colonel William M. Fenton-former Lieutenant Governor of Michigan, Mayor of Flint, and namesake of the City of Fenton-left civilian life in his fifties to command the 8th Michigan Infantry in the Civil War; Flint-area workers earned this community its place in the “Arsenal of Democracy” of the Second World War, building more than 11,000 Sherman tanks at Fisher Body’s Grand Blanc tank arsenal and 2,507 Hellcat tank destroyers, together with millions of shell casings, at Buick; and Owen F.P. Hammerberg, a Navy diver who came of age in Flint, gave his life at Pearl Harbor in 1945 freeing fellow divers trapped beneath sunken wreckage, valor honored with the posthumous award of the Medal of Honor and remembered today in Flint’s Hammerberg Road and Swartz Creek’s Hammerberg Memorial VFW-AMVETS Post 3720; and
WHEREAS, the veterans of Genesee County have never stopped serving: the members of our American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, AMVETS, and Disabled American Veterans posts and chapters-and of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 175, which built the Genesee County Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Bluebell Beach in 1988, helped deliver water to their neighbors during the Flint water crisis, and in the summer of 2026 welcomed The Moving Wall, the traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, back to that hallowed ground for a fifth and final time-continue to post the colors, tend our memorials, mentor our young people, and answer their community’s needs in every season; and
WHEREAS, founded in memory of Sergeant Dwayne “Wayne” Cherry, the Genesee County Veterans Treatment Court has for more than a decade offered veterans in the county’s justice system a demanding eighteen-month path of treatment, sobriety, and accountability, and its volunteer veteran mentors-men and women who know the weight of service because they have carried it-stand beside each participant from first hearing to graduation, guiding the way toward healing and successful reintegration into civilian life and keeping the military’s oldest promise that no one is left behind; and
WHEREAS, on this day of gratitude Genesee County also keeps a solemn remembrance of the veterans who carried their wars home within them and died by suicide-a national crisis seared into the American conscience by the count of “twenty-two a day,” and still claiming, by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ most recent annual report, an average of 17.5 veterans every day-each of them a hero owed no less honor than those who fell in battle, and each a summons to this community to reach its most vulnerable with support, understanding, and hope, and to ensure that every veteran has access to lifesaving resources; and
WHEREAS, in the Genesee County Department of Veterans Services the county keeps a standing promise to those who served: sustained by a millage first approved by county voters in 2012 and overwhelmingly renewed in 2022, the department’s counselors help veterans and their families secure the federal benefits their service has earned, extend emergency assistance to veterans in hardship, and provide free door-to-door transportation to VA medical centers in Saginaw, Ann Arbor, and Detroit through the Vets to Wellness partnership with the Mass Transportation Authority-living its leadership’s creed that in this family, no one fights alone; and
WHEREAS, the Genesee County community will mark Veterans Day 2026 with observances across the county, including the annual Veterans Day remembrance ceremony at the University of Michigan-Flint, which in 2025 marked a quarter century of continuous observance; ceremonies and tributes at the Genesee County Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Bluebell Beach and the Genesee Veterans Memorial on Mott Lake; gatherings at veterans posts and municipal memorials in every corner of the county; and Operation Green Light, joining counties across America in bathing public buildings in green light as a visible signal that veterans are seen, supported, and never forgotten.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that this Board of County Commissioners of Genesee County, Michigan, hereby recognizes November 11, 2026, as Veterans Day in Genesee County; expresses the county’s enduring gratitude to all who have served and to the families who served alongside them; and encourages all county departments and residents-and the schools, municipalities, businesses, and civic organizations of Genesee County-to engage in appropriate recognitions, including participation in community observances, educational programs, and acts of service to veterans, so that the legacy of military service is honored and preserved for generations yet to come.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Genesee County remains resolute in its commitment to the support and representation of its most vulnerable heroes-through the outreach of its Department of Veterans Services, the redemptive work of its Veterans Treatment Court and volunteer veteran mentors, and the everyday vigilance of neighbors, employers, and friends-and commends to every veteran in crisis, and to all who love them, the Veterans Crisis Line, answered at every hour by dialing 988 and pressing 1.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board extends its particular thanks to the volunteer veteran mentors of the Genesee County Veterans Treatment Court, to the staff of the Department of Veterans Services, and to the members of the veterans organizations of Genesee County, whose quiet, steady work embodies the service this day honors, and urges every veteran and veteran’s family to make full use of the counseling, benefits assistance, transportation, and emergency aid that stand ready for them at the Department of Veterans Services.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Genesee County Clerk/Register is directed to provide one copy of this Resolution to each city, village, and township within Genesee County and to each County Clerk in the State of Michigan.