STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

A little fifth-grader from Bellevue Elementary belted out “America” as a stream of cars rolled past a barbecue line set up at the Senior Connection.

Inside the car sat veterans and their spouses, being honored for their service on Veteran’s Day with sack lunches served up by Higher Ground and The Senior Connection.

“They’re people who have sacrificed to their lives to save this beautiful country we live in,” said Arienna Anderson.

“They’re special people who help protect the United States of America,” added Waylon Ramsey.

Senior Connection Chef Sky Barker flipped hamburgers alongside Darin Goertzen and Luis Joya, while volunteers like Nadine Stinger handed off brown bags carrying the burgers, chips, fruit, potato salad and root beer.

“I hope I have enough burgers,” said Barker, who was wearing a red, white and blue hat instead of his usual chef’s hat. “I got 84 burgers, thinking it would be wintry and we wouldn’t get so many people. But it’s more like the Fourth of July out here so we might run out.”

One of the first in line was Celia Streit, who was picking up a bag for herself and her husband Tom Streit. A Vietnam vet, he wound up in intelligence after allergies kept him from his original assignment.

“He was one of the lucky ones—he got to come home,” said Celia Streit. “I belonged to a group of 58 wives at the base in Fort Polk, La. (recently renamed Fort Johnson to cut ties with Confederate figures). “We’d sit around in a circle and pass around letters. If one lady’s husband died, she’d pass a blank letter. By the end, there were only six of us whose husbands had not been killed.”

Seven percent of Blaine County residents are veterans. Statewide 7.6 percent of Idahoans are veterans. “Approximately 1,500 of our neighbors have served in the military and deserve our thanks and gratitude,” posted the Blaine County Republican Party on Monday.

Geortzen, one of the hamburger flippers, served in the Air Force Reserve at Hill Air Force Base north of Salt Lake City, Utah, from 1985 to 1987.

“I kept the planes flying, worked on the jet fuel systems,” he said. “I liked the camaraderie and learning something new. The reason I left it was I came here where I’ve worked as a chef in some of the local restaurants.”

Ketchum resident Gary Vinagre saluted those rolling through the line as a volunteer with Higher Ground.

“I’ve been volunteering 11 years with Higher Ground,” he said. “I’ve helped out in winter, then summer, Once I got in, I found more ways to help.”

Vinagre said he watches veterans come to High Ground ski and flyfishing camps discouraged and depressed. By the end of the week, they’re changed.

“We had a Tacoma couple one time who were on the verge of divorce. Five days later they announced to the group that they were going to redo their vows. The man said, ‘You’ve shown me the light,” and he went home and began helping vets himself by taking them on five- to seven-day bike trips.”