Central Illinois Veteran Warriors hosted their second annual Veterans Fair at the Interstate Center on Tuesday. The fair featured 45 different organizations that offer opportunities, assistance, and benefits to veterans in the community.
“We just got completed with our second annual Veteran’s Fair and we continue to grow,” Treasurer Patrick Schmid said. “We tripled in size. We had to find a new location for this event.
Schmid continued, “We ae always seeking new connections with any organization, program that helps veterans in any way. It could be health care. It could be education. It could be financial. It could be sports. It could be outdoor recreation. It doesn’t matter. If you have a program that helps veterans in any way you can contact us and be a part of it.”
We do have a partnership with the VA (Veteran’s Administration) We can connect with them and get veterans help if they need help quicker than just your normal process. That was something that came out of the last veteran’s fair is that connection of partnership with the VA.
The Warriors are hockey players. They have a team that plays in its own league against Warriors teams from other locations. Their aim is to help veterans with PTSD, depression and anxiety by getting them into a team environment, getting some exercise and working on physical and mental development.
Hockey is played in the winter and the fall when anxiety and depression really increase because of less light. It is also when many holidays are going on such as Christmas and New Years that can be difficult for those suffering from these problems. It’s a good time to really get out any kind of stress and get the therapy that veterans seek at that time of year.
Gateway Family Services of Illinois in Potomac Il works with horses to help veterans heal. Veteran Outreach Coordinator Tim Dippon said, “The mission and the thought is that through connective healthy relationships we can heal trauma.”
A year ago this was a new effort. During the past 12 months Dippon said, “We have developed a weekly group of veterans that we call “Fall in Friday.” They take place there in Potomac every Friday from 9 to 11. We start with a meal. Then we have a small roundtable discussion and then the group shifts out into the barn where we work with any one of the 21 equine that are there.”
Dippon told us about a special experience that the group had earlier this year saying, “Just about three short months ago there was a for instance and I think our group really became much closer knit after the for instance I am about to mention. But we put an 88 year old Korean War veteran on a horse.”
“And I liken it too if you have ever been at a bowling alley when a guy rolls a 300 or if you’ve ever been in a ballgame when a guy is working on a no hitter and nobody talks about the no no,” Dippon continued. Everything stops. Nobody talks about it. Everybody’s eyes were center arena and when that man got on that horse something happened in that barn and our group became more than a group. We became what I like to call a tribe.”
In addition to Fall in Friday, on June 23 Gateway will host a Veteran’s Retreat from noon to three.
Matthew Tribley runs Outdoor Veterans an organization serving veterans and first responders. “What we do is we reconnect veterans and first responders to the outdoors. Tribley said. “We work with a lot of these other organizations; Moraine View R & R, Warriors and a couple of other organizations around town. We have been doing this for about a year now as a non profit. We have been doing it three years in total.”
Outdoor Veterans has a fishing trip coming up July 14 through July 16. All a veteran needs to do is bring a fishing license. Tackle, food and boats will be provided. There will also be cabins available with cots, AC and bathrooms.
“All they are going to do is bank polling over at Bath Illinois,” Sibley said. And it’s a three day trip of them just getting catfish and then they will take those catfish and they will filet them up and send them back home with them.”
The trip also includes fishing at Jim Edgar State Park for bass, crappie and maybe even muskie. There will also be plenty of campfires and cooking included with the experience.
There are three slots open for the trip. This trip is veteran’s only. They will need to show a DD214 or show they are currently in the service.
Lieutenant Colonel Retired Scott Grotbo is the Founder of Moraine View R&R a veterans retreat located just east of Bloomington in Saybrook.
“We run veterans retreats focused around resiliency education and therapy,” Grotbo said. So what we are trying to do is bring veterans out and give them a retreat atmosphere. We are on 25 acres just a beautiful location.” And then we work on therapies whether it’s work, recreation or what we call our restorative therapies like yoga, mindfulness, meditation, breathwork, art, and are just really trying to help veterans regulate and connect.”
Equine therapy is a big therapy veterans gravitate to. So Moraine View works with Gateway. Other big therapies are yoga and breathwork.
Grotbo stated, “Breathwork has been a huge success amongst our retreats. Veterans that go through the breathwork, they just sleep better at night after that. It puts them in a better mood. They just really decompress during breathwork.”
Jared Poppe is a representative for Hooah Deer Hunt For Heroes. “We take wounded veterans with a 10% or higher disability rating on all expense paid hunting and fishing trips throughout Illinois and various states,” Poppe said.
Hoorah’s exhibit featured a golf cart. “We have several raffles throughout the year that help fund our operations,” Poppe explained. “One of them is we have a golf cart that we are giving away. New to this year we have a $10,000 vacation voucher or $8000 cash. And we have a half a beef and a freezer combo.”
“Hunting is our pride and joy,” Hoppe stated. “We actually hunt the Funk’s Grove area. We are the only people allowed to hunt that area.”
According to Poppe, “We fish all over the place. We just did a weeklong trip at COMLARA Park at Evergreen lake and this weekend we are headed down to Rend Lake to do one down in Mt. Vernon. And then in June we have a trip in Pontiac. Throughout the year we travel to other veteran locations to help them out as well wherever they need it.
