Phil Milgrom, a yoga and meditation instructor and co-owner of The Centered Place in Warren, will teach participants about yoga-based meditation — and lead a group meditation practice — at the March 23 Welcome Home Place. 

Bobby Curley knows nature heals. He’s seen it heal others and it has healed him.

He wants to help other veterans capture that feeling, even if their mobility isn’t what it used to be. He’s bringing a Freedom Chair and his therapy dog Celtz to Welcome Home Place Saturday, Feb. 23. Welcome Home Place is a veterans resource center hosted by The Brookfield Institute’s Care for the Troops program. This month’s gathering will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at Holyoke Community College’s E2E Center, 79 Main St., in downtown Ware.

For Harry Pearson, his character — and all the other characters in “Welcome Home” — rings true.

Jeannine Germain’s husband served 25 years in the U.S. Army, often gone 300 days a year. Homecomings were not always the blissful scene we see pictured and life after the Army is also tough, Germain says.

Belinda Morrone was so moved by her first pinning ceremony, she quickly organized another. The retired Air Force colonel first pinned Vietnam veterans at a ceremony in West Boylston, MA in March. The pinning ceremony was organized by The Brookfield Institute’s Care for the Troops program and held after a Yoga Warriors class. Col (ret) Morrone is active in Yoga Warriors and knew many of the veterans. The pinning was part of the American Vietnam War Commemoration and the Brookfield Institute is a Commemorative Partner. The pinning ceremony requires an officer to present the pins and Col Morrone was more than happy to oblige. What she hadn’t foreseen were the emotions.

While at Dannes-Camiers, Base Hospital No. 5 frequently was attacked by enemy aircraft, and on the night of September 4, 1917, suffered several casualties. Lieut. William T. Fitzsimons, M. C., was killed, Lieuts. Rae W. Whidden, Thaddeus D. Smith, and Clarence A. McGuire, M. C., were wounded. Lieutenants Whidden and Smith subsequently died. Three enlisted men were killed and five severely wounded; one nurse and 22 patients were wounded. These deaths were the first among the American Expeditionary Forces clue to enemy activity.