MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- The Beaufort, S.C., Chamber of Commerce held their Ninth Annual Military Appreciation Day at Shady Point Park on the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, S.C., Saturday.
The event is held yearly to show the community's support for the military, said Androula Weiland, BCOC member and event coordinator.
"This is a military community," she said. "The businesses understand that they benefit from the military, and this is just one way for the community to get together and say thank you and show our support for everything [the military] does."
Several local businesses sponsored the event, helping keep everything free for the military families.
Military families were treated to as much food as they could eat by the local AmVets, who cooked hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone, and Bruster's Ice Cream, who dished out free cones to help ease the heat of the hot summer sun.
Games and booths were scattered around the park for the children to enjoy while parents talked in the shade of nearby trees.
The festivities acted as an unplanned pre-ceremony for a celebration on a much larger scale. Later Saturday afternoon, several of the family members at the park traveled over to the flight line and welcomed their Marines and sailors home from deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.