Navy Chaplain Thanks North Haven Rotary Club for Unique Troop Support

Addressing the North Haven Rotary Club recently, Wallingford’s Thomas Jastermsky said that a friend was deployed to Iraq in 2006 and found that his fellow troops lacked a basic staple, coffee.

Back home, as a member of the First Congregational Church, he started Holy Joe’s Café to raise funds to send coffee to active servicemen overseas.

Thanks to donations of coffee and money, since its inception he has been able to send 125 tons of coffee to troops in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq, with major help from Cooper-Adkins Corp in Middlefield which providedfree transportation, as well as help from FedEx.

A second guest that morning at the Breakfast Nook Restaurant was LCDR Andrew Sholtes, a Navy Chaplin on active duty, presently stationed in San Diego, who delivered an emotion-filled address. 

Previously with the NATO hospitals in the Middle Eastern war zones where he served 2000 patients in nine months, he stated that the survival rate for the coalition troops was 98%, which he attributed to the expertise of the U.S. hospitals and their personnel.

While there, the self described 1981 Hungarian refugee to the U.S. witnessed 640 amputations and 118 deaths, but over 9000 survived.

The Lt. Commander said, “In the midst of carnage and war, Holy Joe’s Café represented the goodness and nobility of America, a reminder of what our country represents. I came from San Diego to thank you personally for your generosity.”