A quick recap of the Operation Stand Down event from the media's eyes.The pic here is me after 14 hours at the gate getting 357 folks in for services....
Help Offered This Weekend To Homeless Veterans
Posted: Oct 16, 2009 9:02 PM CDT
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - They are some of our nation's finest, the veterans who have served our country in the Armed Forces. Many of them wind up homeless and needing help.
Operation Stand Down is happening this weekend with a mission to help the homeless veterans.
"People just don't realize all the care and love from all the churches and social services agencies here in Nashville," said Bill Burleigh, Operation Stand Down.
In a packed patriotic gym, veterans find help in their ongoing battle against homelessness, hunger and despair.
"Just the very nature of being a veteran, you can learn to be stubborn, hard headed, but that carries over for most of us. You're also successful in what you do afterward, but also for some people it trips us up," said Burleigh.
Dozens of organizations and hundreds of volunteers are helping the vets by providing food, shelter, clothes, medical and even entertainment from fellow vet Harry James.
"I think we got to clean off our own doorstep before we go into the backyard, and it's just such a pleasure to be here," said James.
The campus of the old Tennessee Prep School looks like a military installation with the green tents for the veterans to stay in.
Operation Stand Down wraps up Sunday. Many vets are expected to then seek addtional help and counseling through the agency's office here in Nashville.
About half of the veterans who attended last year's Operation Stand Down weekend later enrolled in the agency's recovery program.
Operation Stand Down is happening this weekend with a mission to help the homeless veterans.
"People just don't realize all the care and love from all the churches and social services agencies here in Nashville," said Bill Burleigh, Operation Stand Down.
In a packed patriotic gym, veterans find help in their ongoing battle against homelessness, hunger and despair.
"Just the very nature of being a veteran, you can learn to be stubborn, hard headed, but that carries over for most of us. You're also successful in what you do afterward, but also for some people it trips us up," said Burleigh.
Dozens of organizations and hundreds of volunteers are helping the vets by providing food, shelter, clothes, medical and even entertainment from fellow vet Harry James.
"I think we got to clean off our own doorstep before we go into the backyard, and it's just such a pleasure to be here," said James.
The campus of the old Tennessee Prep School looks like a military installation with the green tents for the veterans to stay in.
Operation Stand Down wraps up Sunday. Many vets are expected to then seek addtional help and counseling through the agency's office here in Nashville.
About half of the veterans who attended last year's Operation Stand Down weekend later enrolled in the agency's recovery program.
Nashville's homeless veterans get help, hope at Operation Stand Down event
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"He fed me and led me to the Nashville Rescue Mission," Raines said.
Raines said he'd lived a transient lifestyle since the previous year. He went to Atlanta to work for a friend. The arrangement quickly soured, and Raines returned home to Nashville, hoping to live temporarily with his mother.
When he got home, things changed.
"She handed me the phone through the front door, and my brother told me she didn't need this stress and that I needed to re-evaluate my life," Raines said. "And that's when I ended up at Riverfront."
It took almost six more years for him to get off the streets for good. A Vietnam veteran, Raines turned to Operation Stand Down.
"I remember a lady at the organization took me to Walmart and spent $600 on me," he said. "At that point, I decided I was going to pay it forward."
Today, Raines has his own apartment, volunteers at Operation Stand Down and donates money to the effort.
This weekend, he's taking his message of hope to the organization's annual outreach event, which kicked off Friday on the grounds of the former Tennessee Preparatory School, just off Murfreesboro Road.
Friday afternoon, almost 350 homeless veterans had come for the medical assistance, food, performances, shelter, movies, legal aid and free haircuts, organizers said.
More are expected to arrive throughout the weekend, said event co-chairman Mary Ross.
"We never know how many we're going to get," she said, "but I think we can expect probably 50 to 100 more, at least."
The event, now in its 17th year, has grown each year, said Operation Stand Down Executive Director Bill Burleigh. Last year, 385 homeless veterans were helped. The year before, there were 325. This year, Burleigh said, more than 400 are expected.
"This event shows these men that we care and we haven't forgotten them," Burleigh said.
Home is under bridge
On Friday, homeless Vietnam veteran Milton Jackson was doing just that, chatting with two other vets. In late May, Jackson was laid off from his manufacturing job in Jacksonville, Fla. By June, the Portland, Tenn., native decided to return to Nashville to see if he could find work."It was worse up here than it was down there," he said.
Since then, Jackson has lived under a bridge. He recently found out he has prostate cancer.
For the past three months, he's been catheterizing himself.
"The hospital gave me a box of catheters and told me to do it three times a day," he said.
"They told me they can't do anything for me until I can get off the streets, but I can't get off the streets because I don't have any money, and I don't have any money because I can't find any work."
In July, Jackson met Dennis Huey, a volunteer with Operation Stand Down. Together, the men got Jackson into the program, where he is receiving help after being homeless off and on for about 14 years.
"If I keep on fooling around, the cancer is going to get worse," he said. "This is no joke. It's my life."
Concerned with sanitation issues and Jackson's catheters, Huey decided to ask his daughter Ashley, a nurse at Vanderbilt, if she could help the vet. She agreed. "She taught him a better, cleaner way to get the catheters in," Huey said.
Volunteer enthusiastic
As a volunteer with Operation Stand Down, Huey described his work as a calling. He has worked with the homeless at Tent City for about five years."I love it," he said. "Every day when I wake up I can't wait until I can go out and hit the streets and help someone. Other than family, what more satisfaction is there?
"There is nothing greater than knowing you helped someone."
For Jackson, Huey's help is overwhelming.
"I'm going to be all right," he said. "But, if it wasn't for him, his daughter and Operation Stand Down, I wouldn't be all right."
