Memorial Day donations stolen from Valley war veterans

Twice a year for the last 15 years, war veterans Harvey Krasner, 90, and Gerry Geisler, 79, have collected donations outside of a Rancho Mirage grocery store, handing out poppies to those who donated during the weeks of Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

As they stood outside of Haggen Food & Pharmacy this Memorial Day, they said a teenage boy grabbed the bucket with about $500 and ran off.

“Toward the end of the day we had a full bucket of money,” said Krasner. “He was gone in a flash. Gerry got up to ran after him, but there was no way her would catch him.”

“At 79 there was no way I was going to outrun him,” said Geisler.

Krasner and Geisler raised the money to provide basic supplies for hospitalized veterans at the Loma Linda VA Hospital, Palm Springs USO and other veterans organizations.

“That money wasn’t ours. It belonged to those men in that hospital. We’ve been doing this for 15 years successfully and very proud of the amount of money we’ve been able to collect for them, and we’ve seen what it can do for them,” said Geisler.
Krasner, a member of Jewish War Veterans of Palm Springs, said they want to make up for it and raise the money again.

The two veterans said Haggen grocery store is stepping in and will make a contribution to help.

“I don’t like to ask for it. We always wanted to have people willing to show their appreciation. If I have to ask for it, it doesn’t mean anything. If you do it because you want to it means something,” said Geisler.

If you’d like to help their cause, donations can be made to the Jewish War Veterans of Palm Springs.

For more information, call 760-674-9378.