Velocity Date Calculations?

[john mahan]

Using Velocity Template I have tried a variety of DateTool (and MathTool) coding 
approaches without success (getting NULL result).

The objective is to calculate a Date object comprised of current date plus a variable 
number of days that is converted to a string for display;

Here is an example of one approach I tried:


 ## -------- Set Min Date
     
     #set ($minDays = 2)  ## Earliest Day valid from Today (0= Today)
     ## ------  Set Initial Calendar Date For Display 
     #set ($minDaysMS = ($minDays * 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24))
     #set ($currDate = $date) ## Default Current System Date
     #set ($baseDate = $date.format('S',$currDate))
     #set ($minDateMS = ($baseDate + $minDaysMS))
     #set ($minDateDisp = $date.toDate($minDateMS))
     #set ($dateDisp = $date.format('M/d/yyyy',$minDateDisp))  ## Min Date Short 
String 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I know this is (should be a simple thing) BUT since I'm new to Velocity any 
suggestions are welcome.

John Mahan