The New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Foundation, Holmdel, will show the film “A Touch of Home: The Vietnam War’s Red Cross Girls,” 1 p.m. Feb. 21.
The American Red Cross introduced the idea of Donut Dollies, originally known as Red Cross Recreation workers. GIs in Korea nicknamed the workers “Donut Dolly” because the women had doughnut machines and made approximately 20,000 doughnuts a day when the troop ships came in. The Dollies were meant to be a supplemental recreation program that started duringWorldWar II, but continued through the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In 1962 the American Red Cross sent its first paid field staff to Vietnam to assist the growing number of servicemen at various bases and hospitals, and by the end of the Vietnam War, more than 600 women had provided services to U.S. military personnel and assisted Vietnamese refugees. The film is a look at the lives of these women.
Suggested donation is $5 per person, and attendees are asked to RSVP to 732-335- 0033.