Local casino partners with veteran memorial to provide clean up efforts

GLENVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10) - The second annual Rivers Gives Day of Service was held at the Capital Region Veterans Memorial in Glenville on Thursday. The Rivers Casino in Schenectady partnered with the memorial site with the goal to honor military veterans and first responders. The event began at 10 a.m. and went until 2 p.m. and involved casino employees cleaning up the memorial site.

Larry Zeglen, the vice president of the Capital Region Veterans Memorial, said partnering with the casino gives him the much needed hands to provide groundkeeping to the memorial site.

"They are going to be staining decks," Zeglen said. "They’re going to be raking stones. They’re going to be planning flowers and actually putting 100 packages together for troops overseas.”

According to Zeglen, the day was spent cleaning up; planting shrubs and perennials; staining an ADA ramp; and assembling and donating care packages to the 109th Airlift Wing at Stratton Air National Guard Base in Glenville. The casino also presented a check of $12,407 to the memorial’s Legacy Project to help further fund its completion.

Sean Wyse, the engagement manager at the casino says lending a helping hand was something that came naturally. 

“We met some of the folks who are volunteering, active volunteering here giving their time, most of which are veterans, they approached us, told us about the project," Wyse said. "Giving back to veterans organizations and active military, as well as first responders, is a priority of our giving program, so it was a natural fit. And they’re just three miles down the road.”

And with nearly 80,000 veterans in the Capital Region, both Zeglen and Wyse hope the landscaping work done on the memorial will bring more activity to the site. 

“We want to create a respite where veterans and their families can come and forget about the things that trouble them, that they deal with," Zeglen said. "A place that they can have fun, maybe, and just a place they can reflect on the good part of their lives.”

The table games manager at the casino, Mike Depinto, is also a veteran; he said that work like this can mean a lot for veterans.

“Every month there is a different charity that we partner up with, and veterans are probably the least heard people right now, and it’s gave me great joy that my company was involved in standing in front of something as cool as this.”

Casino team members also did similar tasks at Rivers Casinos in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Des Plaines, Illinois (Chicago area); Schenectady, New York; and Portsmouth, Virginia.