A Way to Give Back to Veteran Families

On Memorial Day, we pause to honor all those special heroes who donned a uniform to serve our country.

They say every man is more handsome in a uniform. But this is a fellow I’m particularly proud of every Memorial Day. He’s my dad, Leon Gurzenski, who died when I was 11. He was in World War I – the “Great War to end all wars.” Then along came a tyrant by the name of Adolph Hitler, who brought about World War II. The U.S. has had its share of fallen heroes with a series of conflicts leading up to the current combat in Afghanistan. So many men and women have sacrificed their lives so that we can continue to live in freedom. Just one day seems terribly inadequate to honor them all. But honor them we do, not just those who have died, but those in active service today, as well as thousands of veterans, who returned with permanent physical and mental scars of their time in battle. All those medals acknowledging their bravery isn’t enough either.

Those of us at the All Natural Country Store, proud distributors of J.R. Watkins’ 250+ “made-in-the-USA” products, try to do a bit more. The Watkins Company has been around since 1868. That’s 145 years if you care to count. That’s long before my dad was old enough to fit in that sailor’s uniform. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy as soon as possible, and served until he returned from overseas with a broken back and an honorable discharge. He lived with back pain for the rest of his life, dying prematurely at the age of 60. As I said, I’m very proud and eternally grateful that he was my dad, and served his country so long and proud, even though his life was cut short because of that service.

Because Watkins has been around through all those wars, many of those wives and husbands left at home while their spouses fought on foreign soil had to do what they could to make ends meet. The perfect part-time job for them was as members of the J.R. Watkins family of sales people. Some of them steered horse-drawn wagons across the plains. Later, many of them drove some of Henry Ford’s first models from farm-to-farm across this country’s heartland. Today’s Watkins sales team can be found at farmers markets and peddlers markets across the country. In fact, we managers of the All Natural Country Store “worked” the Big Bear Lake Elk’s Club Peddlers Market this Memorial Day weekend. We use the word “worked” loosely because of all the neighbors and holiday weekend guests, who are drawn to this ideal mountain lake community covered with pine trees, and only a short drive east of San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles. Frequent customers have become friends, the kind you can talk with over the back fence and catch up on their busy lives. We extend an additional 10% off the retail price to all veterans during the Memorial Weekend.  That’s on top of the 25% we extend to anyone who joins our Watkins All Natural Country Store Wholesale Shoppers Club for just $39.95.

I can’t help thinking that somewhere up there dad is looking down proudly, not only because we have established our own Watkins business, but because we have helped many other veterans and surviving spouses build their own home-based Watkins businesses. That’s the kind of reward that we consider priceless.