II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 645
To award a Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the individuals and
communities who volunteered or donated items to the North Platte Can-
teen in North Platte, Nebraska, during World War II from December
25, 1941, to April 1, 1946.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY20, 2025
Mrs. F
ISCHER(for herself and Mr. RICKETTS) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Hous-
ing, and Urban Affairs
A BILL
To award a Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the
individuals and communities who volunteered or donated
items to the North Platte Canteen in North Platte, Ne-
braska, during World War II from December 25, 1941,
to April 1, 1946.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘North Platte Canteen 4
Congressional Gold Medal Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
The Congress finds the following: 7
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(1) Home-front volunteerism was integral to the 1
victory of the United States during World War II. 2
Numerous exemplars of patriotism emerged through-3
out the Midwest, galvanizing the rural United States 4
and the rest of the country supporting the war ef-5
fort. 6
(2) The North Platte Canteen in North Platte, 7
Nebraska, was one of the largest volunteer efforts of 8
World War II. 9
(3) Canteen services boosted morale in the 10
United States by providing free, wholesome enter-11
tainment to troops traveling across the country. Ap-12
proximately 120 community-based canteens operated 13
in the United States during World War II. 14
(4) The North Platte Canteen greeted and 15
served food to approximately 6,000,000 United 16
States troops traveling across the United States 17
from December 25, 1941, to April 1, 1946. 18
(5) On December 17, 1941, the residents of 19
North Platte, Nebraska, received information that a 20
train of Nebraska National Guardsmen would be 21
traveling through North Platte en route to the West 22
Coast of the United States. Although the train car-23
ried members of the Kansas National Guard, resi-24
dents of the community welcomed the men from 25
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Kansas with food and other items as an appreciation 1
for their service. 2
(6) On December 18, 1941, Rae Wilson, of 3
North Platte, proposed to her community the idea of 4
establishing the North Platte Canteen so that resi-5
dents could greet United States troops en route to 6
serving the United States in the European Theater 7
or the Pacific Theater. 8
(7) 55,000 individuals, the majority of whom 9
were women, from 125 communities in Nebraska, 10
Colorado, and Kansas donated food and volunteered 11
at the North Platte Canteen for approximately 5 12
years. 13
(8) The North Platte Canteen provided hospi-14
tality to as many as 24 troop trains per day. During 15
a 1-month period, the volunteers at the Canteen 16
served over 40,000 homemade cookies, 30,000 hard- 17
boiled eggs, 6,500 doughnuts, 4,000 loaves of bread, 18
3,000 pounds of meat, 450 pounds of cheese, 60 19
quarts of peanut butter, 1,350 pounds of coffee, 20
1,000 quarts of cream, 750 dozen rolls, and 600 21
birthday cakes. 22
(9) The North Platte Canteen principally oper-23
ated at the Union Pacific Railroad station in North 24
Platte, Nebraska, with volunteers from local commu-25
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nities, organizations, churches, schools, and other 1
groups, and without Federal assistance. 2
(10) $137,000 in cash contributions supported 3
the operations of the North Platte Canteen for al-4
most 5 years. The funds were raised through benefit 5
dances, scrap-metal drives, school victory clubs, do-6
nation cans in local businesses, and from the rel-7
atives of troops who traveled through the North 8
Platte area. 9
(11) In December 1943, the North Platte Can-10
teen was honored by the United States Army with 11
the presentation of the Meritorious Wartime Service 12
Award by the Secretary of War. 13
(12) In 2004, the 108th Congress passed a res-14
olution recognizing the heroic efforts of those who 15
made enormous sacrifices to make the North Platte 16
Canteen a success during World War II. 17
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 18
(a) P
RESENTATIONAUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 19
the House of Representatives and the President pro tem-20
pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 21
for the presentation, on behalf of Congress, of a gold 22
medal of appropriate design to the individuals and commu-23
nities who volunteered or donated items to the North 24
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Platte Canteen in North Platte, Nebraska, during World 1
War II. 2
(b) D
ESIGN ANDSTRIKING.—For purposes of the 3
presentation described in subsection (a), the Secretary of 4
the Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) 5
shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, 6
and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary. 7
(c) L
INCOLNCOUNTYHISTORICALMUSEUM.—Fol-8
lowing the presentation described in subsection (a), the 9
gold medal shall be given to the Lincoln County Historical 10
Museum in North Platte, Nebraska, where the medal shall 11
be available for display as appropriate and made available 12
for research. 13
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 14
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 15
bronze of the gold medal struck under section 3, at a price 16
sufficient to cover the costs of the medals, including labor, 17
materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses. 18
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 19
(a) N
ATIONALMEDALS.—Medals struck under this 20
Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 21
31, United States Code. 22
(b) N
UMISMATICITEMS.—For purposes of sections 23
5134 and 5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals 24
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struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic 1
items. 2
SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF 3
SALE. 4
(a) A
UTHORITYTOUSEFUNDAMOUNTS.—There is 5
authorized to be charged against the United States Mint 6
Public Enterprise Fund such amounts as may be nec-7
essary to pay for the costs of the medals struck under 8
this Act. 9
(b) P
ROCEEDS OFSALE.—Amounts received from the 10
sale of duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 11
4 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public 12
Enterprise Fund. 13
Æ
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