To the Editor:
On behalf of the Board Members of Franklin Cooperative Ministry and myself, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the community for making our Sept. 11 Presentation a huge community-wide success.

Sept. 11, 2001, is a day most Americans will never forget. An attack on America took place that day and 3,000 people lost their lives, 343 were paramedics or firefighters. The entire country was impacted by this tragic day’s event.

We were honored by the attendance of about 100 police officers, fire and rescue, veterans and residentS from the City of Franklin, Southampton County.

We also honored a volunteer and veteran, Carroll Cannon, who passed away on Sept. 4, 2014. He was very active in our community in helping veterans, member of American Legion Post 73 and Virginia Boys State Program Representative for many years.

We are so very grateful and appreciative to Woodmen Life Organization, Franklin, Virginia and its members for the flag and flag pole. We also were given a flag that has all 3,000 names of those who lost their lives that day. A special thank you goes to Bill Witt, president of Franklin Chapter 18 and Mr. E.B. Knight for all their help in making this possible.

There were many other organizations, individuals who made this presentation possible.

Lt. Cmdr. Scott P. Seddon, USN, VFW Post 4411 and local veterans of this organization who installed the flag pole.

Also, we would like to thank David Flythe and Johnny Jackson with the American Legion Post 73 Color Guard and Wayne Blythe for donating his time and for purchasing and installing the light for the flag pole.

Blaine Britt and Britton Culpeper for playing “To The Colors” and “Taps.”

Brooke Johnson, a local veteran and friend of Mr. Cannon, raised and lowered our new flag.

Southampton Volley Ball Team of 28 outstanding young ladies and their coach, Mrs. Davis and Jack Schwolow for all their help in getting the landscaping and getting our building ready for the presentation.

We would like to send out a very special thank you to the employees of Hardee’s, Food Lion and Walmart who prepared and donated chicken for us to serve local policeman, fireman and veterans and visitors that day.

We would also like to recognize Fellowship Around the Word Church, Pastor Russell who offered their church and parking lot in case we needed to move the program inside because of inclement weather.

Thank you, Rebecca A. Chappell, reporter for Tidewater News, who did a great job in writing the newspaper article.

There were many others who were behind the scene who made this dedication a huge success. We thank each and every one of you who gave your time, sweat equity and donations.

Franklin Cooperative Ministry is truly blessed every day by the citizens of City of Franklin, Southampton County and southern end of Isle of Wight County who always are willing to help us.

Without you, FCM would not be in existence. Thank you so much for all you do. We can never thank you enough.

Veronica F. Ferguson,
Director
Gretchen Hopkins,
Chairperson