TAMPA, Fla. — A Pinellas County woman has been honoring service members and veterans in a unique way for nearly 20 years. Deb Benson created a nonprofit to sell and give away challenge coins as a tangible way to show gratitude. It’s called Grateful American Coin.
Benson said she came up with the idea because she wanted to teach her young sons Max and Brock to be patriotic like her father and stepfather. The challenge coins have branches of the military on one side and an eagle on the other.
Benson would take her sons along as she looked for potential veterans so they could give them a challenge coin to honor their service.
“My sons would always say we are on soldier alert,” said Benson. They would look for specific signs that a person might be a vet.
“So, fatigues is the obvious one. It might be a veteran’s auto tag in a parking lot. You see somebody walking to the car. A veteran’s cap or shirt. Anything,” she said.
Over the past 19 years, Benson has sold or given away nearly 90,000 of the challenge coins. Each time she gives a coin to a service member or a veteran, the experience is a little different.
“The stories and the moments are all like snowflakes. No two are the same,” she said.
Benson’s husband James Wilkins often gives out coins to veterans as well.
Benson never dreamed Grateful American Coin would last for nearly two decades.
“I do remember my dad saying once you start this you won’t be able to ever stop till all of our heroes have been thanked,” said Benson. “There is aways a new hero. Always.”
On a recent morning, Benson was giving away challenge coins to service members and vets at the Hula Bay Club restaurant in Tampa.
“I have something for you. I wanted to thank you for your service from a grateful American and give you a coin,” said Benson as she shook Marine Corps veteran Jack Diaz’s hand with a coin exchanged in the handshake.
“I think it’s very nice,” Diaz said. “I think it’s good that parents are teaching their children to respect and honor veterans because many of them don’t come back home.”
Benson said the years-long effort has been worth it. “Oh my gosh, yes. 100 percent. I would do this full time. I have a regular job that pays in green and this is the one that pays in the heart. “I could do this all day, every day”
Net proceeds from the sale of the coins go to organizations that support veterans and military families.