Effort Underway To Designate Parking Spaces For Wounded Veterans

By Cleve Bryan

VINELAND, N.J., (CBS) -- A small nationwide program has made its way to South Jersey.

At the Shop Rite on East Landis Avenue in Vineland you may notice a new parking assignment next to the handicap spots -- one designated for wounded veterans.

"It's a good idea, they ought to put more of them up."

The store added the reserved parking spot for combat wounded vets at the request of neighboring Buena Vista Township's Veterans Affairs Committee.

"In the monthly VFW magazine which we all get, I saw an article with this in it. I contacted the people in Omaha, Nebraska they told me what it was, we said that this was something we wanted to do in our area," said Buea Vista committee member John Armato.

Over the last few years an organization called Wounded Warriors Family Support has given out more than 4,000 of these combat wounded parking signs.

"I think it's marvelous, I'm all for it."

Buena Vista ordered five signs -- so far there's one at Shop Rite and one at Town Hall.

"We're proud to have someone like that represent us in the community and to have people thinking about us," said Henry Lopez of VFW Post 158.

Even though this particular effort started with the Buena Vista Township Committee, the Combat Wounded Project is available anywhere and the goal is that someday these signs would be see just as often as other handicap parking signs.

"If this goes well we should see this everywhere we go, we should see it in shopping malls, at the movies, anywhere people gather and there's a lot of people, there should be a place for our wounded warriors," said Armato.

Anyone interested in getting sign, they're free from Wounded Warriors Family Support, you just have to cover shipping and handling.