MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
SAMA Wales is launched.
The South Atlantic Medal Association, made up of Falkland War Veterans, their families and Islanders recently celebrated the launch of its newest regional branch. On Saturday August 30th at the TA centre in Cardiff, over a hundred Veterans and special guests attended the inaugural meeting to launch SAMA Wales.
Attendance so outstripped first predictions that the event had to be moved from the original location into the drill hall. Speeches were made by Branch Chairman Mr Stephen Hopkins, Denzil Connick, and National Secretary for SAMA, and "Curly" Jones the Regional Secretary. The special prayer of the association was read out followed by a minutes' silence for fallen comrades.
Veterans attended from all over the UK and their efforts were rewarded by a marvellous raffle organised by Chris Duggan who now takes on the task of the fund-raising for the branch.
Most of the guests hadn't seen their comrades for many years. Many eager conversations were heard mixed with laughter and tears. The whole evening was a spectacular success and there were calls for it to be repeated from all the veterans and families there.
Special guests included Catherine Gorman from HTV Wales and Claire Williams from the Royal British Legion.
The night's star guests were three Falkland Islanders, Tim & Jan Miller from Stanley who kindly hosted four veterans last November during the SAMA pilgrimage. They were presented with a hand-made Welsh Lovespoon as a "thank you" for their generous hospitality. The third Islander was Terry Betts, who lived through the invasion in 1982. He flew in from Portugal where he currently lives.
The aim for the evening was to see if a regional branch was feasible and sustainable. These two questions were answered by a resounding, Yes!!
SAMA Wales is now well and truly established and its committee is busy preparing a calendar of events to complement the parent organisation, the South Atlantic Medal Association.
Source: Falkland Islands Newsletter
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