Free Veterans' Appreciation BBQ At Wall's Allaire Community Farm

WALL, NJ – Allaire Community Farm in Wall Township is hosting its first annual family fall festival to honor veterans and their families on Thursday afternoon from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Veteran-owned BBQ company G.I Smoke BBQ will be providing the food, and there will be a hayride and petting zoo, along with arts and crafts for the kids.

The idea for the event came from Rick Young, who is the President of the Board of Directors for the farm and a Vietnam veteran himself, who said that veterans have mentioned to him in the past that many veteran appreciation events don’t allow for veterans to bring along their families to come and participate.

“A lot of vets would like to share the event with their family,” Young told Patch.

Another influence behind Young creating the event was that the farm has hosted events for kids with special needs in the past and saw that interacting with the animals helped the kids, so Young thought it might be a good way for veterans who have PTSD to spend time with the animals on the farm.

“We’ve had special needs days, and we found that interacting with the animals opened them up, so we felt that vets with stress would feel the same way,” Young said.

The event is located at the Allaire Community Farm on 1923 Baileys Corner Road and is free; veterans have to bring their military I.D.