A Community Honors Its Own

Today something very emotional and special happened in Powhatan. A community, in droves, lined the main route through the county (Route 60) to welcome home one of their fallen, Caroline Schollaert, who was shot during an attempted car burglary at her home in Florida last week. Her dad’s facebook post reads in part, “…She was an active member of the United States Coast Guard. She served in the elite Hitron unit which conducts drug interdiction ops. A service is being held at her unit hangar Tuesday morning (August 10), then we will be escorted back to Powhatan, VA by an honor guard …….please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.”

Picture of Caroline taken from Pat Schollaert’s fb page.

This post is not so much about Caroline as it is about the community that showed their love, support and care for the Schollaert family. I did not know her but her dad is a customer in our store. I didn’t realize this was happening until this afternoon and I decided I wanted to be a part of it. The family and body landed at the Chesterfield Airport and made their way up Rt. 288 to Route 60 and west to the Bennet-Barden funeral home directly across the road from our farm. We had a front row seat!

Community gathering and waiting.
Lining the road. From what I heard there were people lining the road from the county line up to our road. (8 miles)
Lining the road. Our fields in the background.
Hometown USA-the real America!
ABC News was there. He said to watch at 11 p.m.
This man had his drone ready to fly for aerial pictures as soon as the procession arrived.
Stopping traffic at the crossover for the motorcade.
Lead car. Here they come. Everyone watched in silence.
Respect, honor and patriotism.
And there they are…..
Lots and lots and lots of motorcycles. It was impressive and sets such a respectful atmosphere.
Sobering and sad. Coming home to be laid to rest. Gunned down in a senseless murder in the prime of her youth.
There had to be hundreds of cycles.
The parking lot at the funeral home.

I was impressed with the turn out of people showing their love and care for the Schollaert family. Some were friends and co-workers and some, like me, just wanted to be a part of the community support, honoring and welcoming home one of our own. Something special happens to a community when they come together in times like this.

1 Comment »

  1. Barbara E. Gilbert Said:

    Thanks for this post. We have become so divided and angry as a country. These pictures remind us of what should be most important to all of us: Love and devotion to our families, our country, our freedom, and our God who loves us and provides eternal life thru our Lord Jesus Christ. May our country return to God. My prayers are with this family during their sad loss.


{ RSS feed for comments on this post} · { TrackBack URI }

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: