2021 Hometown Heroes

2021 Hometown HEROES Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS May 27, 2021 Page 11 in a holistic manner and he still serves as the chairman of that commission. He is on the American Legion Post 263 Honor Guard and performs multiple dignified ceremonies per week for veterans who have passed away. He has been leading the charge with the Central Illinois Veterans Commission Board at his side in securing housing for veterans who are need of a safe and permanent roof over their head. He is also the Purple Heart Chapter Chairman and attends many functions in that role. Joe has done so very much for central Illinois veterans that it is truly hard to quantify everything he has done to include the tangible and intangible.” Fellow veteran and Logan County Sheriff Mark Landers also holds Schaler in high regard, “Joe is the best of us. As a veteran, I truly appreciate his dedication and hard work in striving to ensure those issues important to us are always spotlighted.” Schaler was also the driving force behind getting the entire Logan County community designated as a Purple Heart County. Within our county, every municipal community has adopted the Purple Heart Community as has the county itself. Again Schaler said he didn’t do it, the people did. He brought the program to Bill Thomas in Atlanta, who in turn helped him to bring together all the mayors and village presidents in Logan County for one open discussion. It was all those leaders, and their various councils, trustees, or board members that made it happen. Regardless, Schaler is very proud of his community for what they have done. Schaler is a member of the Hayes-Krell Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH) and is still working beside other members of that organization to get more Purple Heart communities in Illinois. In addition to the MOPH, Schaler is involved in the American Legion Post 263, the Cronin Brothers VFW, the 40ET8, and the Marine Corp League. All of these organizations do good works that benefit veterans in the community from financial assistance for education, to recognizing local purple heart recipients, to giving out toys to children in need at Christmas time. A somewhat new and perhaps accidental program that is now growing rapidly within the Marine Corps League is the Mobility Assistance projects that Schaler credits to local veterans Bill Dennis and Gene Hickey. Schaler sees Dennis and Hickey as very hardworking along with others who are helping them. Thanks to them the Mobility Assistance Project has spread its wings and is serving veterans from Pontiac to Auburn with repurposed electric scooters, wheelchairs, hospital beds, and the construction of wheelchair ramps. And, it was through that project that Schaler said he came to know “2 X 4’s of Hope.” Schaler walked through the chain of events that led to the 2 X 4’s of Hope coming to Lincoln. Dennis was acquainted with a man named Don Yarborough in Peoria who was repairing scooters on his own and giving them to veterans. He visited Yarborough’s home to talk about what the man was doing and see his huge inventory of parts. At about the same time, the veteran hospital in Quincy was tearing down a building and had a collection of dilapidated wheelchairs ready for disposal. CONTINUED u