Yellow Ribbon offered to sponsor the commercial kitchen for the new Heritage Center, which will occupy space on Holyoke Avenue, across from City Hall, that used to serve as Lakeville’s police station.
The estimated contribution is about $27,000, which Kes said the group can raise now that the City Council voted last month to officially approve the project.
He sees his organization’s participation as the essential third peg, combining three organizations that all relate to each other in beneficial ways.
Some of the programming Yellow Ribbon wants to provide, such as helping veterans re-enter civilian life and access services available to them, is not offered in the comprehensive way Yellow Ribbon intends to offer them, Hilla said.
But for a returned veteran who is no longer active duty, “they can’t get back on base,” he said. “So this is an opportunity to serve those additional vets. It’s essential to have something like this.”
Yellow Ribbon currently offers a variety of services both to soldiers and their families. For example, Hilla said people will help deployed soldiers’ spouses with essential chores such as cooking and cleaning.
“But with the Veterans Center we’re trying to attract younger members and families of people being deployed,” Hilla said. This means bringing Veterans Administration representatives to a central place to teach classes on how to purchase a home, or even offer some computers with helpful websites bookmarked for those who have no Internet access at home.
“Some vets don’t get the right answers on how to use their benefits,” Hill said. “They don’t know how to take advantage of the benefits they’ve earned by serving their country.”
Hill even talked about the possibility of hosting Skype sessions between family members at home and their loved ones deployed abroad.
The project kickoff event is 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, at the Heritage Center site. The city intends for the project to be complete by fall 2012. Share
View the Original article
