In support of military veterans and their families, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a sponsor of the 2026 National Veterans Golden Age Games from June 27 to July 2 in Tampa, Florida.
The National Veterans Golden Age Games offers sports competitions and health education sessions for veterans 55 and older, promoting active and healthy lifestyles through athletics, wellness and fitness.
As part of its sponsorship of the 40th annual event, the Church hosted a booth at the health and wellness expo, offering information about Church resources, including military relations support, JustServe and FamilySearch.
The event was also promoted on JustServe.org, which helped generate more than 1,600 volunteers over the six-day event, including young women and men from the St. Petersburg Florida Stake as part of their youth conference.
Three Latter-day Saints who volunteered at the games were Kim Fredrick, a local JustServe specialist; Jennifer Samuels, who serves as a local communication director; and Elder Timothy Fagan, a military service missionary, veteran and Church’s veteran support coordinator. Elder Fagan also competed in the games.
Fredrick said several event organizers and other sponsoring organizations thanked the Church for its support. A Department of Veterans Affairs employee was impressed by the number of Latter-day Saint youth who volunteered and noted that the veterans enjoyed interacting with them.
“It was gratifying to hear that our volunteers, particularly the youth, made such a positive and lasting impression,” Fredrick wrote in an email to the Church News.
Elder Fagan said hundreds of Church members who volunteered wore a glowing wristband that represented the light of Jesus Christ. Leftover wristbands were given to anyone who wanted one, with an invitation to wear it wherever they went and “let their light so shine.”
“There were a lot of veterans walking around with glowing wristbands,” Elder Fagan told the Church News. “The games are a way for veterans to improve physical and mental wellness but also spiritual wellness. The glowing wristband was an example of that.”
While at the booth, Elder Fagan noticed a veteran standing close by and offered him a glowing wristband. The man, who wore a crucifix necklace and had the Lord’s prayer tattooed on his arm, told Elder Fagan he had been praying to know which church to join. The two fell into a long gospel conversation — the service missionary sharing the message of the Restoration while the man peppered him with questions.
“The more I shared with him, the more he glowed. Like a golden contact, he was so excited to hear about the Church,” said Elder Fagan, who collected the man’s contact information and helped him identify a local meetinghouse where he could attend a Sunday worship service.
Another visitor to the booth appreciated learning about the Church’s community service and wanted to know more about the faith. The woman also provided her contact information for a meeting with Latter-day Saint missionaries.
Joining several other Latter-day Saints, Elder Fagan competed in golf, badminton, pickleball, billiards and table tennis — earning a gold and a bronze in badminton and a silver in pickleball.
Elder Fagan, a returned missionary who immigrated to the United States from South Africa at 16, turned 67 years old on July 4. He served in the United States military for nearly 30 years. This was his third year competing in the games, which will move to Cleveland, Ohio, in 2027.
A member of a stake presidency oversees military relations in a stake and may call a man or a woman to serve as the military relations specialist, according to the Church’s General Handbook. Elder Fagan encouraged Latter-day Saint veterans and their families to connect with their stake military specialist.
“The stake military relations specialists around the world — not just in the U.S. — are the subject matter experts in assisting [veterans and their families] in every aspect of their life," he said. “The service that will be provided to those veterans will be premium. ... That will be the Lord reaching His arms around those who have served.”
