The Columbus Avenue Miracle

? A poignant and heart warming story of the home-front struggle to present soldiers with simple and profound kindness during WW II. ? One of devoted and selfless giving by the grateful residents of Bellefontaine and Logan County, Ohio, to hundreds of thousands of soldiers passing through town on the New York Central Railroad during WW II. ? A warmly defining testament to a town and a region honoring the brave sons and daughters of America who went to war.During 1942, a group of civic-minded wives of railroad men began providing free lunch to every soldier passing through town on the railroad. With war rationing on, the people of Bellefontaine and Logan County, Ohio, sacrificed their food and gave their time to feed our nation's military. For 45 months day-in and day-out; week after week, around the clock, over 700,000 soldiers were nourished. The food was served by volunteers on the Columbus Avenue platforms of the New York Central Railroad.The Canteen became the home-front rallying point for the community. Ladies all over town and in the rural areas made baked goods, cooked food and volunteered at the Canteen, greeting each soldier with a smile and a kind word. Life for everyone at home during the war meant daily sacrifice. It was all done for the men and women in uniform who were making the greater sacrifice. They served soldiers passing through on furlough, troop trains, hospital trains carrying wounded soldiers home, and even the POW trains. Given a touch of home in a time of terrible world events, the soldiers derived a powerful sense of appreciation and purpose by the simple gestures of total strangers.