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Valley veteran, wife go beyond the call of duty
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WARMTH: Marine Corps. Sgt. Charles Rhodes sits next to his sister Patsy Price of Youngstown under a lap robe provided by Louis LaCava, a member of the American Legion Austintown Memorial Post 301, at Austinwoods Nursing Center in Austintown. Rhodes, who served from 1968 to 1973, also holds a statue depicting the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima in World War II.
The LaCavas have delivered 75 lap robes to veterans.
AUSTINTOWN — Louis and Marie LaCava are making sure military veterans in Austintown nursing homes are not forgotten.
With the help of members of American Legion Austintown Memorial Post 301, they send cards and deliver cookies, cupcakes and lap robes to veterans in nursing homes.
“We send 130 to 140 cards a year,” said Louis LaCava, a retired Navy chief warrant officer 4.
It was the cards that started their project, which Marie LaCava said has “snowballed.” “It seemed like every time we turned around, something new was added,” she said.
It all started in 2004 when the LaCavas went to a Post 301 board meeting to discuss what could be done for the community and veterans.
Marie LaCava said she knew from her experience of working 20 years as a licensed practical nurse at Shepherd of the Valley Nursing Home in Niles that a lot of residents didn’t have visitors or receive cards.
As a result, she suggested that the post do something for veterans in nursing homes.
They started out sending birthday and Veterans Day and Christmas cards made by post members on their computers.
When Christmas arrived that first year, they decided something more than cards was needed: So they started delivering cupcakes they and other post members baked.
“It took us two days to deliver them,” Louis LaCava said.
In May 2005, they added cookies for Memorial Day to the growing list of gifts for the veterans.
In 2006, the Post 301 Auxiliary, of which Marie LaCava is a member, and the Post Junior Auxiliary, got involved and made and delivered Valentine’s Day cards. At the same time, she suggested doing something for the families when the veterans died, so they began sending condolences.
“We felt it was necessary to not just drop them,” Louis LaCava said.
Since April, 21 have died, he said.
And still the project kept growing. They now invite the nursing homes to bring the veterans to the Austintown Memorial Day Parade. “We position their buses so they can see the parade and we give them flags and poppies.
“It makes you cry,” Marie LaCava said.
Also, Louis LaCava has started giving demonstrations on folding the U.S. Flag and its meaning, and giving homemade wine and cheese parties for the veterans and showing movies.
“They like the westerns the best. Me too,” Marie LaCava said with a laugh.
The newest addition to their project is the lap robes, sewed by members of the Ruth Circle at Austintown Community Church. One of the members of the Ruth Circle, who is also a member of Post 301 Auxiliary, asked the LaCavas if they would have any use for lap robes.
“We picked up 17 robes the first time, and since November of 2007 have delivered about 75 robes to nursing homes and to the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Brecksville.”
The LaCavas admit the project has about taken over their lives, and say they are working hard to get more members of Post 301 involved.
“We want to make sure our veterans are taken care of as much as we can,” Marie LaCava said.
Louis LaCava and the former Marie Fortunato married in 1965 and have two children: Christopher of Columbus and Vicki Jean LaFond in Virginia, and a granddaughter, Kaitlyn.
Louis LaCava, 72, who enlisted in the Navy in October 1955 and retired in June 1980, says: “I feel we owe our veterans something. ... They need some help. I know I’d want someone to help me if I was in that position,” he said.
“What surprised us the most were the thank-you cards and letters from the veterans and their families. That’s when we realized we were making a difference,” Marie LaCava said.
alcorn@vindy.com