Veterans Honored and Shared Stories at Annual Veterans Day Event
Two veterans were gifted Quilts of Valor and a local mother who lost her son in the U.S. Army earlier this year shared his story and legacy
Nov. 7, 2025
By Beth Kassab
A 28-year employee of the Winter Park Library and the city worker who runs both Winter Park-owned cemeteries were awarded Quilts of Valor on Friday as part of an emotional ceremony honoring locals who have served ahead of Veterans Day.
Sarah Williams, who is acquisitions manager at the library, served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1982 to 1994 during the Cold War, Persian Gulf War, Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Sarah Williams, a Marine Corps veteran and Winter Park Library employee, is presented with a Quilt of Valor on Friday.
At one point, she was deployed when her daughter was about 8 months old and returned when she was 2.
“It means the world,” Williams said after she was presented with the colorful quilt bordered in a red, white and blue floral pattern that Melissa Mathews and other representatives from the Quilts of Valor Foundation wrapped around her shoulders.
Michael Webb, who served in the U.S. Army from 1994 to 2015 and joined the city’s Parks & Recreation Department in 2017, was also moved by his quilt as it was placed around him. He served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. (Webb, second from right in the photo at the top of this page, receives his quilt from the foundation.)
“I’ll definitely keep this in the family forever for my sons,” said Webb, who runs Palm and Pineywood cemeteries, after the ceremony. “It will become a family heirloom.”
Quilts of Valor was founded in 2003 and has comforted more than 400,000 veterans with handmade quilts, according to its website.
The crowd at the city’s 15th annual Veterans celebration at the Community Center also heard from Laurie Houck, a Gold Star Mother and vice president of institutional advancement at Rollins College.
Laurie Houck, a Gold Star Mother and a vice president at Rollins College, addresses the crowd at the city’s Veterans Day celebration on Friday.
Houck lost her 22-year-old son David, a U.S. Army Supply Specialist and company armorer stationed at Fort Eisenhower near Augusta, Ga. He was killed in a vehicle accident in January just outside of the base.
Houck remembered how her son struggled when he first enlisted and didn’t care much for bootcamp. But in the military, she said, the tiny malnourished 2-year-old she adopted from China 20 years ago “had found his second home.”
She recalled how he worked to overcome his earliest years in an orphanage where he was left in his crib so long the back of his head was flat to his days in Boy Scouts and, later, as a camp counselor. Skills — she said — that eventually helped him in the Army.
“He belonged and he mattered,” Houck said. “David was known for the way he made people feel valued.”
Ben Mack-Jackson, founder of the WWII Veterans History Project and a Winter Park resident, displays a uniform that belonged to Tuskegee Airman Richard Hall Jr.
The ceremony was emceed by Pastor Troy East of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and also featured a number of city officials, including Mayor Sheila DeCiccio and a performance by Maria Bryant and the VFW Post 2093 Community Band.
DeCiccio noted the lineup of events the city has planned beginning in January to celebrate the nation’s 250th year. For more information click here.
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