Helping Veterans
BUTLER TWP — American Legion Post 778 was a beehive of activity on Friday as veterans and service providers inundated its headquarters for the second annual Butler County Stand Down, an event that seeks to unite homeless and at-risk veterans with the services and resources they need.
Organizer Allyson Rose, the community development housing coordinator with Butler County Human Services, said that with more than 40 organizations on-hand offering help with everything from joblessness and homelessness to health services and peer support programs, the goal was to serve more than 200 at-risk and homeless veterans.
With food, winter clothes and shoes available from organizations like the American Legion Riders — a group of veterans who were overseeing the distribution of military surplus clothing — and Walmart, which dispatched about a dozen management employees and hundreds of pairs of boots to be distributed among homeless veterans, organizers said they were well-stocked to meet the need.
It was community awareness that was the focus Friday.
“We're hoping that they (homeless veterans) get the support that they need,” said Dennis Christie, one of the riders who was handing out clothes on Friday. “I don't think the community realizes how many homeless vets that there are.”
Lining the post's common room were tables filled with service providers and representatives from organizations like Butler Health System — which offers programs that range from drug and alcohol treatment to an AmeriCorps program that links veterans with employment opportunities at nonprofit organizations — and Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services, which offers mental health and drug and alcohol programs.
Al Worsley, the legion's post commander, said the group was pleased with the turnout Friday. Worsley said he wanted one focus to be helping veterans understand what support services were available to them.
“I think this event in particular will have a big impact because organizers did a good job of reaching out,” he said. “It's opening the availability up. A lot of people just don't know what they can get from the VA, and that's what is huge about this.”
The event drew veterans from across the region.
Dana Haynes, an Army veteran from Farrell, Mercer County, was getting a haircut on the stage of the post's common room Friday morning.
Haynes said he heard about the Stand Down event from officials at the VA Butler Healthcare Domiciliary Care facility, and was impressed by the number of veterans who turned out to help their comrades.
“That's what it's about — it's about us helping one another,” Haynes said. “Without that help some of us wouldn't survive out here.”
Haynes said that homelessness was a particular problem for veterans in this region, but that veterans' needs run “the whole gamut,” from mental health services and drug addiction to joblessness.
Gerry Evan, a homeless veteran who said he was currently staying at the Mechlin-Shakley Veterans Center, a transitional housing facility for displaced veterans in Armstrong County, said he appreciated the chance to get a meal and new clothes.
Evan wanted people to know that veterans struggling with homelessness and joblessness need their support and help.
“They should first realize that veterans are human beings, and they deserve the same respect they give other folks,” Evan said.
