Tuscany Villa Honors Veterans for Memorial Day

Tuscany Villa of Naples rolled out the red carpet for their veterans over the Memorial Day weekend with special ceremonies on Friday, May 28 and Monday, May 31 at their East Naples facilities.

“We really feel that our community focuses on our veterans," said Georgie Romeo, executive director of Tuscany Villa.  "And the World War II generation is fading fast.  We have one remaining World War II veteran still with us.  The rest are Korean War and Vietnam War veterans.  I guess you could say I’m desert storm.  I’m retired Air Force."

Tuscany Villa is a luxury rental resort-style senior living community offering the finest in assisted living apartments, as well as rehabilitation center services and respite care/short stays for those with more specialized needs.  They cater to veterans.

“We focus on our veterans,” Romeo emphasized.  "Friday’s event was to recognize our new residents, who are veterans.  We ask people when they move in, if they’re veterans, to supply us with a picture of themselves when they were in the service.  Our local Hospice partner, Vitas, donate the plaques.  We had the veterans in a special area, surrounded by the flag.  We recognized their branch of service.  Then we celebrated with a special cupcake cake.

“On Monday we had members of the JROTC program from Palmetto Ridge High School present the colors.  They came in, presented the colors, we sang the national anthem.  We had our chaplain, Ed Brandt, he’s a retired One-Star General, say the prayer."

“Once a year we have a ceremony where we honor them or recognize them.  And we have a veterans’ wall that we put in our library.  So it’s like a formal ceremony.  It’s a nice way to recognize our folks.  As a community, and a company, we offer a five percent veterans’ discount.  Nobody else offers that.  We also partner with a company who helps veterans apply for the aid in attendance benefits.  They qualify by being on active duty for at least 90 days during a declared war period.  That’s significant.

“At least 20 percent of our people are veterans.”

Colleen Long, marketing director for Tuscany Villa, had a special veteran she wanted to mention.

"I'd love to give our WW2 a special shout out,” Long said, “His name is Phil Thomas and he is 98-years-old.  He  lives here with his beautiful wife Jean.  They’ve been married for 75 years.

Tuscany Villa is owned by Five-Star Senior Living.