COURTESY PHOTO - Young Miss Rabbit Fest Carleigh Ross, 15, hands a hand-made valentine to a veteran at the Central Texas VA Hospital on Saturday.COURTESY PHOTO - A veteran at the Central Texas VA Hospital in Temple plants a kiss on the cheek of Baby Miss Rabbit Fest, Lily Banks, who is held by her mother, Sergeant Diamond Banks. The tiny titleholder was handing out valentines at the facility on Saturday.

Rabbit Fest Royalty thank veterans with homemade valentines

Special to Leader-Press
 
Sparkling tiaras and hand-made valentine cards warmed the hearts of veterans in the Central Texas VA Hospital on Saturday. Copperas Cove Rabbit Fest royalty showed their appreciation to service men and women with a special delivery that wrapped up the National Salute to Veterans Patients Week celebration.
 
The royalty, ranging in age from 11 months to 50+ years, went room to room in the VA nursing home bringing big smiles to veterans who not only welcomed them but shared their stories of their time in combat. Sergeant Diamond Banks, mother of Baby Miss Rabbit Fest Lily Banks, is a medic who works at Darnell Hospital. Not only were the elderly veterans enamored with the baby titleholder who was dressed in red from head to toe, they enjoyed swapping war stories with Banks.
 
“I was one of the men that helped end the Cold War so that we could have everything we have today,” veteran William Holmes shared with Banks. “My father was in World War II and I carried on the tradition.”
 
 

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