The Veteran Employee Team (VET) at UGI Energy Services is busy all year long, ensuring we have a strong presence supporting our veteran community. During November, our pride in honoring and paying homage to our veterans truly resonates.

UGI’s VET employee resource group focuses on the recruitment and retention of veteran employees, as well as creating goodwill in our communities. Many of our employees are veterans, have a close family member who is a veteran or active in the military, or have been affected in a unique way by a veteran or veteran organization.

We recognize those who have served in America’s military, and the sacrifices they have made for our country, our safety, and our future.

Throughout the year, our team sells R.E.D. (Remember Everyone Deployed) T-shirts. This allows employees to show support for veterans while raising funds for local veteran organizations. In September, in recognition of Suicide Prevention Month, these T-shirt sales benefited Stop Soldier Suicide, a non-profit organization whose mission is to reduce service member and veteran suicide by using enhanced data insights, focused client acquisition, and suicide-specific intervention services. Thanks to our generous employees’ donations, we raised more than $1,800 for the organization.

UGI VET partnered with UGI Utilities’ Community Relations team to sponsor an event for Miles for MilitaryShare. Miles for Militaryshare is a fundraiser supporting the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. According to the organization, “The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, an affiliate of Feeding America and Feeding Pennsylvania, serves 27 counties across Pennsylvania. Since its founding in 1982, there have been many positive changes to the organization, including expansions to both healthy food hub locations in Harrisburg and Williamsport and capacity investments in hundreds of our local Partner Agencies to better serve many communities.”

Our team also took part in several additional activities this month commemorating our veterans. On November 6, 2024, at 4:00 PM at our Wyomissing office, our VET hosted a Formal Retreat and Flag Folding Ceremony, where the flag was lowered to symbolize the end of the day. The United States Armed Forces holds a ceremony of retreat to honor those who have died. As the flag is lowered, the National Anthem is played, and the meaning of the flag folding is explained.

On November 8, UGI sponsored the annual Berks County Veterans Luncheon with proceeds benefitting veteran programs and organizations in Berks County. Guests heard from guest speaker Colonel Marth McSally, the first US woman to fly in combat and first woman to command a fighter squadron.

Currently, UGI employees are preparing to once again support Wreaths Across America events taking place in December. Recently, we had raffle baskets donated by two local organizations, Unique Pretzels and VCOP (Veteran’s Coalition of Pennsylvania) that were in our UGIES offices. We raised $310 in support of this event. Please consider participating in this program in your area, for more information, check out their website.

We take pride in our community efforts, and we take great honor in our veterans every day at UGI. We are fortunate to have our recognition wall at UGI Energy Services Knitting Mills office, and at UGI Utilities’ Learning Center where employees and guests can pay homage throughout the year to veterans and the United States Armed Forces.

On behalf of UGI’s Veteran Employee Team and all UGI employees, we honor and thank our veteran and service member community, representing all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces – Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. In honor of Veterans Day, we encourage our employees and community to learn more about our veterans’ programs, wear their R.E.D. attire, and write words of thanks for Veterans. Our VET theme is “Thankful for our Veterans” and we hope that everyone can incorporate this message into their day and find ways to make an impact all year round.