I am the Spirit of ‘45 Lee County chairman and am going into my fifteenth year of holding this event which honors our WWII veterans. Meeting these wonderful men and women of our greatest generation has been an honor and a privilege, however, it also comes with sadness in having lost so many of these over the years.
While I had announced, in 2023, that it was my last year of holding this event, I felt that I had to bring it back for the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII, in 2025. It suddenly dawned on me that, while our WWII generation’s numbers are rapidly decreasing, the national Spirit of ’45 was started to preserve the legacy of this amazing generation. If I stop holding this, and this initiative ceases to exist, then so does their legacy. I refuse to let that happen.
I now have family members speaking on behalf of their WWII veteran relatives and it’s had quite an impact. Their stories are being told and their legacy lives on. We can’t ever forget the service and sacrifice of our greatest generation and this needs to be passed down to our younger generations.
In the past, receiving calls from new WWII veterans left me with the feeling that I still hadn’t gotten the knowledge of this initiative out far enough. I sincerely feel that more members of our greatest generation are still out there and still haven’t heard of this initiative to honor them. I am asking for your help, once again. Please don’t make this another year where family members tell me that they wish they would have heard about this while their WWII family member was still alive. It happens too often. Again I say, their stories need to be heard and preserved. Their legacy needs to live on. This is what Spirit of ’45 is all about.
As our WWII veterans are passing at an alarming rate, that doesn’t mean that I can’t do everything in my power to keep this going for as long as I can. I would like to see every person who knows a WWII veteran, refer them to me to attend this event. The date is August 9th. The dinner/ceremony is at Kelly Greens in Fort Myers. Dinner starts at 4:15 p.m. and the ceremony should end around 7:15 p.m. WWII veterans and spouses are FREE of charge. All others, cost is $45 per person.
Spirit of ’45 is a nationwide initiative. The second Sunday in August was congressionally resolved to be National Spirit of ’45 Day. The Lee County event being held on Aug. 9th this year is an elegant sit-down dinner followed by a veterans’ ceremony. There will be a presentation of Colors along with the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem being sung, guest speakers, entertainment, “Amazing Grace” played on bagpipes, flag folding ceremony, wreath ceremony, POW/MIA (Missing Man table) ceremony and so much more.
I want to see this event continue to thrive, but I can’t do this without your help. There are various sponsorship levels for business sponsorships ranging from $50-$1,500+. These various levels will provide advertisement in the program and, in some of the levels, will provide tickets to the dinner/ceremony. A new sponsorship level was started for personal sponsors, called “SPONSOR-A-VET,” where you can sponsor $45 to pay for a WWII veteran’s meal and can have your name or the name of a specific WWII veteran listed in the program. (Please note that there are many other underlying expenses in holding this event).
We will keep striving to keep The Spirit of ’45 alive and sincerely hope you can attend and pay homage to these great men and women for their service. Please feel free to reach Eryka Aptaker at (917) 607-4385, or email at ejaNYYgirl@comcast.net. Reservations are required by 08/02/2026.
Eryka Aptaker is the Spirit of ‘45 Lee County chairperson.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: WW II vets need your help to keep Spirit of ’45 event alive | Opinion
Reporting by Eryka Aptaker / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Eryka Aptaker | USA TODAY Network
