In an effort to thank and to give back to veterans, Lee Chiropractic & Athletic Training will provide free spinal adjustments on Veterans Day—Nov. 11—to those who served in the military. On Veterans Day, the office will be closed to non-veteran patients. Chiropractor and Athletic Trainer Dr. Jeremy J. Lee—owner of the practice—wanted to provide free treatment to veterans for the last couple of years, he said.
One of the obstacles Lee faced in assisting veterans was that he did not possess his own building space to practice in, according to Lee. Since the practice currently resides in its own home on 72 East South St., Lee said he is happy to be in the position to help.
“Now that we have the space to do this, we just wanted to give back and so we figured this Veterans Day we’d close down to any normal patients that we might have and be here to provide a complimentary service to veterans,” Lee said. “A lot of veterans didn’t receive a thank you when they came back and we’re just really looking to give back.”
Lee said many members of his family have served in the military, which motivated him to provide this service on Veterans Day.
“Michelle [Lee]—our office manager who is also my wife—and I both had grandparents who were career military guys,” Lee said. “My grandfather was in the Navy for 20 years, and so we’ve always had a great appreciation for what those guys do and how they help us and our country to have the rights that we do and live the lives that we do.”
This is the first year Lee will provide complimentary spinal adjustments to veterans, and he hopes to make it a yearly event, according to Lee.
Lee did not serve in the military himself, but he completed a short residency at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, NC as part of his training. As a civilian, Lee worked at the Naval Hospital on the Marine Base, and his work led him to greater appreciate veterans’ service to the United States, he said.
In addition to providing veterans with free chiropractic services, Lee would like to turn the event into a fundraiser to aid Honor Flight, an organization that flies veterans to Washington D.C. to visit the nation’s capital and memorials, according to Lee. Lee would also like to aid the local Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, which works to provide services to veterans, service members, their families and communities, he said.
Local VFW Post 5005 in Geneseo has sent out information about Lee’s complimentary service for veterans to the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion email. The organization has also handed out pre-appointment forms at the meetings, VFW Quartermaster Richard Platt said in a phone interview.
“We think it’s a fine thing what Dr. Lee is doing, and we certainly appreciate it,” Platt said.
Lee hopes to raise money specifically for VFW posts because of his connection with the VFW post in York.
“The local VFWs are always doing some sort of fundraising stuff. The VFW in York has an appreciation dinner for [veterans] and their spouses, and my grandfather is no longer with us, but every year they invite my grandmother to go to this appreciation dinner,” Lee said. “So if we can give back and raise some money to help them put that on, I think that would be good. That’s really it, we just want to give back.”