# North Platte Canteen Congressional Gold Medal Act

This bill authorizes Congress to award a special gold medal honoring the volunteers and communities who ran the North Platte Canteen during World War II. The canteen was a remarkable grassroots effort in North Platte, Nebraska, where local residents served free food and hospitality to American soldiers traveling by train across the country from late 1941 through 1946.

The story behind this is pretty remarkable. After Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941, a woman named Rae Wilson proposed that her community welcome troops passing through town. What started as a simple idea grew into one of the largest volunteer efforts of the entire war. Over nearly five years, about 55,000 volunteers—mostly women—from 125 communities across Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas donated food and their time. They served approximately 6 million soldiers, sometimes handling up to 24 troop trains in a single day. During one month alone, they handed out over 40,000 homemade cookies, 30,000 hard-boiled eggs, thousands of doughnuts, and 600 birthday cakes. The whole operation ran without any federal funding, supported entirely by local donations and fundraising efforts like benefit dances and school drives.

The bill itself is straightforward: it directs the U.S. Mint to create a gold medal commemorating this achievement. After the medal is presented, it will be displayed at the Lincoln County Historical Museum in North Platte so people can see it and learn about this piece of history. The government can also make bronze copies of the medal to sell, with the proceeds going back to cover the costs of making the medals. This is essentially Congress saying "thank you" to these volunteers by officially recognizing their contribution to the war effort and American history.

North Platte Canteen Congressional Gold Medal Act

Smith, Adrian

North Platte Canteen Congressional Gold Medal ActThis bill provides for the award of a Congressional Gold Medal to recognize the individuals and communities that provided financial and other support for the North Platte Canteen in North Platte, Nebraska, during World War II.