Free breakfast offered for Greene vets
The Greene County Human Services Department is teaming up with the Veterans Affairs Office to offer a free breakfast for local veterans and their families.
The event will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Nov. 21 at the Carmichaels American Legion on East George Street. It is part of a Human Services Department initiative examining the behavioral health side of veterans and what the county can and should offer them.
“This is a kickoff event to connect veterans with each other and also to find out what we can do and what we have to offer for our veterans in our county,” said Maribeth Tarpley-Garrett, block grant program specialist for Human Services.
Along with the free meal, organizations will be showing what type of resources are available.
Lt. Col. Thomas Stokes, who served in the U.S. Army Reserves as a military social worker, will speak. He is a decorated war veteran in the Pittsburgh area and maintains a private practice serving members of the military and their families. He was commander of the 328th Medical Detachment, Combat and Operational Stress Control Unit based in Coraopolis. While deployed to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, he served as officer in charge of the Combat Stress Clinic at Forward Operating Base Gardez and was responsible for more than 10,000 military personnel.
“We are going to try to get the participants in the breakfast in a guided way to engage and connect with one another in a way that you normally do not see,” Stokes said. “We want to try and re-create that sense of camaraderie within the military that just doesn’t exist between the members of the military and the civilian population.”
Stokes said social disconnection can lead to many problems for veterans.
“This is a beginning effort of mobilizing the community to create the eyes and ears for this problem in the area,” Stokes said. “This is a first stride in a long process to decrease the military, civilian gap aimed at the vital connectedness pathways that discussion can create for the future.”
Veterans also can share ideas on what would services they would like to have offered.
To register for the event, contact Tarpley-Garrett at 724-852-5276 ext. 676 or mgarrett@co.greene.pa.us.