DAYTON, Ohio — The Dayton VA Medical Center turned its West Third Street campus into both a parade ground and a working resource fair on Saturday, hosting the fifth annual Veterans Day Parade for Miami Valley veterans and their families. The event ran from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on November 7 at the medical center at 4100 West Third Street, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The VA’s event listing described a morning of parade entries, music, food and fun, staged on the Saturday before Veterans Day, which falls on Wednesday, November 11 this year. In its GovDelivery bulletin announcing the event, the Department of Veterans Affairs called the gathering “our way to say thank you to those who served.”
The parade was only half of the point. Alongside it, the resource fair offered veterans one-stop help with the parts of VA care that can be hardest to navigate: enrolling in VA health care, checking the status of a disability claim or appeal, and finding resources on toxic exposure. The VA bulletin also listed mental-health resources, caregiver support, housing and homelessness assistance, and health options for women veterans, all in the same visit.
Dayton937’s event listing described a flyover opening the morning and dozens of parade entries, and the Dayton Daily Dose reported food trucks on the grounds and open-house tours of the campus Fisher House, which the listing said was marking its eighth anniversary. NewsForce247 has not independently confirmed those details with the VA, but the official program alone made the morning equal parts celebration and service fair.
The setting carries its own history. The Dayton VA campus traces back to the Central Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, established after the Civil War, and the grounds remain one of the most historic veterans campuses in the country. Saturday’s parade was the fifth straight year the medical center has marked Veterans Day this way, pairing the ceremony of a parade with the practical work of connecting veterans to benefits they have earned.
For veterans who missed the fair, the help does not end with the parade. The VA’s Dayton events calendar lists a University of Dayton School of Law legal clinic for veterans with civil legal issues on Monday, November 9, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. in Building 409 at the medical center, with walk-ins taken first-come, first-served.
The next big date on the campus calendar is Thursday, November 19, when the Dayton VA holds a drive-thru turkey giveaway for veterans in need, starting at 11 a.m. at the South Gettysburg Avenue entrance, first-come, first-served until supplies run out — one more thank-you, two days before Thanksgiving week begins.