<\/p>\n
The Four Corners Veterans Stand Down at the La Plata County Fairgrounds on Saturday had more than 40 services offering a hand up for homeless or at-risk veterans. They provided tax and legal services, education, housing, clothing, job referrals, health, vision and hearing screenings, social and mental-health services, hot meals \u2013 even haircuts and showers.<\/p>\n
\u201cStand down is a hand up, and not a hand out,\u201d says the motto of the National Coalition of Homeless Veterans, an organization reaching out to U.S. veterans, providing support and resources to improve their lives any way they can.<\/p>\n
The first Stand Downs were held in the late 1970s in San Diego, offering a reprieve for vets living on the streets. They were modeled after stand downs during the Vietnam War, where troops found a secure place to regroup, collect themselves \u2013 to shower, eat and rest.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, dozens of veterans \u2013 some wearing camouflage, some displaying medals, some wearing hats with the label \u201cVietnam vets\u201d \u2013 were given sizable care packages, including warm socks, food and sleeping bags.<\/p>\n
The event, supported by Veterans for Veterans of Archuleta County, Volunteers of America, the Red Cross, Veterans Administration and La Plata and Montezuma counties, is largely due to commitment from one woman who saw a need for veterans and their families.<\/p>\n
When Janna Schaefer\u2019s husband, United States Air Force Staff Sgt. Stephen Schaefer, was deployed to the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm, everything changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they get on that plane, you don\u2019t know if they\u2019re coming back or what condition they\u2019re coming back in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her husband came home ill and died on Veterans Day in 1993. He was 31.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Schaefer, mother of five, knew she had to do something to make changes for servicewomen and men.<\/p>\n
Along with Linda Mathews, she started a local chapter of the national group Blue Star Mothers, which provides support to families of deployed soldiers. Then in 2014, with the help of Richard Schleeter of La Plata County Veterans Service Office and Charlie Parnell of Disabled American Veterans, she organized the area\u2019s first Stand Down.<\/p>\n
Veteran Navy fire controlman Gail Brents said he feels invisible. He held records of health problems he suffers \u2013 knee and neck injuries, degenerative discs, tinnitus, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. He wants to help others, but sometimes needs help himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I\u2019m homeless, I got a VA claim and live in the camper on the back of my pickup truck,\u201d Brents said.<\/p>\n
Brents served 42 total missions in the Persian Gulf during a dangerous period in the 1980s. When he was 24, the Navy told him to write a will.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty-one missions in the Strait of Hormuz, and I can\u2019t get a place to live? It\u2019s about love, about having someone stand behind you so they can live free and have a choice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Vietnam-era veteran Al Taramante got his hair cut, picked up a new winter coat and got a fat loaf of bread.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of us you don\u2019t see, but we\u2019re here, and this kind of thing brings us out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Evan Kikla said he and a friend \u2013 both recently discharged from the military \u2013 have been living in his car. They heard about the Stand Down from the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post.<\/p>\n
The two men are part of Fire Corps, a kind of fire-protection and forestry trade school for veterans. They hope to land jobs for next year\u2019s fire season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t make a lot of money, and they have all these wool socks and sleeping bags and stuff. It\u2019s becoming winter time, so it helps out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Schaefer, of Blue Star Mothers, says the Stand Down helps show veterans that the community has not forgotten about them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis lifts them up and says, \u2018We care, you served our country, and we\u2019re not going to let you down,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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