At 11 a.m. today, just about the time this paper rolls off the press, local veterans will gather downtown for their annual service marking Veterans Day.

Since 2005, the veterans and members of the community have gathered there, at their new memorial, built through endless fundraisers and volunteer help. Brick pavers laid in front of the monument bear names of area soldiers, some living, many passed on, who sacrificed for their country when the call came.

Before the memorial’s construction, veterans gathered on Lafayette Square, which is sure to be ringed with flags this morning.

For the first time in my years in LaGrange, I won’t be with the downtown ceremony, but on a bus with a group of veterans headed to Columbus to tour the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning.

So that’s where I’ll be.

Where will you be?

What have you done for a veteran?

I watched, in 2003 and 2004, while the West Georgia Veterans’ Council worked to raise money to build the memorial around which they now gather at the Government Center.

I watched them sell pavers, brick by brick, and watched one local veteran as he worked to install them – then painstakingly made a grid so that future visitors can find their brick with their loved ones’ names.

I watched after each USO-style benefit show that I helped produce as these same veterans took money from their own pockets to “bump up” the fundraising total to get the memorial built and pay for its upkeep. Veterans that already had sacrificed so much, still working to make sure the job got done.

Veterans always have been one of those groups to whom I can’t say no – animals, of course, being the other. It was a no-brainer in our family, all amateur historians. My own dad was in the Air Force during the Korean War. He never said much about it, except to tell me that the military made a mistake and he was forced to go through basic training twice. He never went overseas, serving mostly at the base in Louisiana. I’m sure at times Louisiana was enough of a foreign experience for him.

Dad would sometimes jokingly plead, when he was trying to get my brother or I to do something for him, that “he was a veteran.”

Military wasn’t much talked about but we always appreciated their service. My mom would ignore other fundraising groups but always would roll down her window to buy a poppy from the local VFW chapter every year when they stood in the main intersection in Ursa, Ill.

I didn’t give much thought to veterans until years later when I was in Kinston, N.C., and the town began putting on an annual “Salute!” festival honoring veterans, complete with USO-style show, parades and other events. It continues today and is a major community event.

When it was starting, our paper put out a special section every year with veterans’ stories. Some of my best stories – and best memories – came from talking to those veterans.

I look forward to telling more stories of the veterans here. I won’t be able to say no.

Jennifer Shrader is a staff writer with LaGrange Daily News.