At its State meeting held on Sunday, October 10, 2021, the Maine Elks Association, on behalf of the Elks National Veterans Service Commission, recognized Bruce Sargent, of Presque Isle, as the 2020-2021 Maine Male Veterans Volunteer of the Year.
Beginning in 2017, Sargent used tractor-trailers of his business, Falcon Transportation, LLC, to haul lightly used hotel furniture from a warehouse of a company which engaged in major hotel renovations and refurnishings. This furniture was first delivered to the warehouse provided to the Presque Isle Elks by the Presque Isle Industrial Council for use as a furniture bank for previously homeless military veterans.
In the ensuing years, Sargent caused furniture to be delivered to veterans furniture banks in Augusta and Bangor, in addition to Presque Isle. Beginning in 2020, Sargent began causing trailers to be dropped at hotels being refurbished and other furniture warehouses in order that the furniture might be loaded in an orderly fashion without necessitating the removal of the furniture to a warehouse of the hotel refurbisher before being transported to Maine’s veterans furniture banks. One of Sargent’s trucks would later return to retrieve the trailer, which had been loaded over the period of a week or more.
It is a direct result of Sargent’s generosity that the veterans furniture bank operated by the Presque Isle Elks Lodge, as well as Elks Lodges in Bangor and Waterville, have been able to assist the large number of previously homeless veterans, once they have been placed in a home, with the assistance of other veterans service organizations, such as the Aroostook Veterans Alliance.
In March 1983, Sargent started a one-person transportation company named Sargent Trucking. Soon thereafter, he convinced his sister Amy, Michael Tweedie and Terry McEntee to join with him in the trucking business. Today Sargent is the sole owner of Falcon Transportation, LLC, which employs over 130 people and operates over 300 trucks hauling refrigerated trailer loads of food throughout states East of the Mississippi River.
In accepting the award, Sargent said, “My contribution in assisting the veterans’ furniture banks in the State of Maine is insignificant in comparison to the service and sacrifice of the military veterans who benefit from it.”
