The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Bed and breakfast gives free rooms to veterans
An Oberlin bed and breakfast continued its tradition of giving free rooms for U.S. military veterans on Veterans Day.
“We’ve done this for 10 years,” said Susan Woodward, who runs 1830 Hallauer House Bed and Breakfast at 14945 Hallauer Road with her husband, Joe Woodward. “We started it when our daughter, Chief Petty Officer Emily Woodward, joined the Coast Guard and there was the website, bandbsforvets.org, and we put our name in that so we’ve been doing it ever since.
“My husband is an Army vet, and he’s a big Civil War buff, and our daughter is in the (U.S.) Coast Guard, so we just felt like this was something we should do.”
Woodward said the bed and breakfast was fully booked for Veterans Day.
“We do our rooms on Nov.
11 and give breakfast on Nov. 12,” Woodward said, about the veterans promotion. “We have three rooms that we have in our B&B, and we’ve had three rooms filled every year.
“We’ve actually had to turn away like 10 people this year already.”
Woodward said giving the free rooms to vets is their way of giving back.
“I think it’s important be
cause we need to give them back something they’ve given us and what they’ve done for our country,” she said. “It’s important to thank them for what they did because it’s a hard job and they do it for a lot less money than they get in the real world.
Woodward said it was their patriotic duty to do this.
The business is doing well despite the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, she said.
“We closed for about two and half months, but we decided we could social distance outside in the summertime,” Woodward said. “We just have the three rooms, so we don’t have many people congregating.
“We actually had some families booked out all the rooms so they could be with their family, so it has worked out well. We will continue to adapt as we have to move mostly inside in the colder months.”