When veteran Dick Bries was asked to attend the grand opening of the Quad-City Veteran Outreach Center on Saturday in Davenport, he said he had no clue what to expect.
2021 Jefferson Awards: Lola VandeWalle
Inside the
Quad City Veterans Outreach Center in Davenport, Iowa, the first thing you ll see is a picture of a man - Emerson Ted Walters, the father of Lola VanDeWalle. He s my inspiration and why I did this, explains Lola. He was given the Purple Heart and I thought - he gave so much, so can I.
Ted fought in World War II before coming home and starting a family, raising two daughters - one of them named Lola. He was very active, a very active father, very involved and I learned very much from him and I went on to study WWII throughout college and everything and just wanted to do as much as I could to give back like him.