In the spring of 2014, the Western North Carolina Chapter was seeking ways to expand its veteran support. After reading that another North Carolina chapter was participating in the We Honor Veterans (WHV) program, the board of the Western North Carolina Chapter contacted its local hospice organization, Four Seasons Compassion for Life. Unbeknownst to the chapter, Four Seasons leadership recently had become aware of the same program and was looking for help in implementing it in western North Carolina.

The partnership formed almost immediately, and MOAA members began the brief process of becoming certified as Four Seasons volunteers so they could perform “pinning ceremonies” for veterans in hospice care.

Along with framed certificates personalized with the veteran's name and branch of service, Four Seasons provided blankets and pins with the WHV insignia. The chapter provided service-specific lapel pins and developed a brief pinning ceremony to honor and thank the veterans. The very first ceremony was held in November of 2014.

Since that time, the program has expanded from Henderson County to almost all of western North Carolina - from Asheville to the Tennessee border. Currently, 13 chapter members participate in pinnings. Past chapter President Capt. John Knapp, USN (Ret), has become a board member of the Four Seasons Compassion for Life Foundation and chairs the Foundation's WHV committee.

Most important, more than 350 veterans in the community have been honored and thanked for their service to the nation through pinning ceremonies.

“We are grateful for MOAA's partnership in honoring veterans in our hospice care,” says Loretta Shelton, executive director of the Four Seasons Compassion for Life. “It is even more important when you realize how many of the veterans receiving pinning ceremonies share that it is the first time they have been thanked for their service.” Knapp is passionate about the program and strongly encourages every MOAA chapter to contact their local hospice to create a program or participate in an existing one. “The financial cost is minimal (only pins), but the rewards are truly priceless,” he says.