Veterans Service Commission reaching out to Wayne County veterans

Sundee Porter believes she is the luckiest person in Wayne County. As the outreach services coordinator for the Wayne County Veterans Service Commission, Porter gets to be a difference-maker in the lives of a growing number of area military veterans.

If it were up to Porter, she’d help all of them, and she’s trying. Having been on the job just a few months, she has seen a pretty good response but wants to get more vets involved.

“What they’re looking to do is expand awareness of our veterans and reinforce that their service matters to many people,” Porter said.

One way the commission has been doing that of late is hosting a veterans coffee crew on the second Tuesday of each month. Breakfast is provided free of charge for any service member who shows up.

Including the March installment this week, the breakfast gatherings have thus far taken place at the same place, the Best Western Plus Hotel and Conference Center on East Liberty Street in downtown Wooster.

The original plan was to move the get-togethers around the county. Now that the meetings have been established as regular events and more and more are learning about them, they are indeed going to move around, Porter said, with a new location every three months.

The next stop will be somewhere in the southern part of the county, Porter said, after that, the northern portion, before returning back to a more central location in Wooster for the final three months of the year.

The breakfast meetings are open to any veteran and their spouses for $8. All will be served a hot breakfast with coffee or juice, and attendees will be treated to guest speakers who will discuss services available to them, among other things. It also gives the veterans a chance to mingle and kibitz with one another.

“It just gives them an opportunity, especially during these winter months, to get out of the house and visit with other veterans,” Porter said. “They have memories in common. They’re like-minded. They just sit and talk. Then we’ll have a speaker who comes in and speaks to our veterans, just for about 15 minutes, just with information that might be beneficial to them.”

At one meeting the Public Utilities Commission was represented, with its spokesperson outlining changes coming down the pike, among other topics. Another month Community Action Wayne/Medina had a speaker talk to veterans and their spouses about things like free tax preparation, transportation, utility assistance, telephone assistance and other things.

“There are so many services available that a lot of these veterans don’t know about,” Porter said.

The most recent speaker came in from the VA center in Canton.

“I had her come in to speak about mental and physical health in the winter months,” Porter said. “She talked about how we can take better care of ourselves.”

This week the speaker will be from Village Caregiving and is coming to speak to the veterans about the many services they have for veterans including ambulatory care and even just companionship.

“Maybe a veteran or a spouse is unable to get out of the home and they need to pay bills,” Porter said. “They have companions who will sit with whoever the homebound person was. They can do things like help with housework and other stuff at no cost.”

Porter has used the breakfasts as a way to start compiling a list of veterans in Wayne County. By midweek this past week, the number on the list was 135. The breakfasts have averaged about 75 attendees, though Porter said that dropped a bit in February.

Coming at the end of the month on March 29 is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. The commission will hold a catered lunch for all who sign up.

That program will include guest presentation from Mike Kovack, a 30-year Navy veteran who has served public offices in Medina County for much of his post-military career, and Deborah Ashenhurst, a returned major general who spent 37 years in the Ohio National Guard.

“They’re pretty incredible people,” Porter said. “I can’t wait to meet them. They both are fully aware of what veterans endure.”

And in this case what Vietnam vets put up with, especially upon their return home from the war when they were scorned in many parts.

“The Vietnam veterans were not welcomed home,” Porter said. “They were not like the ones coming home from Desert Storm. To the contrary, they were not welcome. They may have been the only ones remaining from their (unit). They may have been the only ones who made it.

“Our intention for this event is to celebrate them, welcome them for providing us our freedom. It’s never too late to tell someone ‘thank you for what you’ve done.’”

The Vietnam commemoration also will be held at the Best Western. Those interested in attending should call 330-345-6638 or email Sporter@waynecountyveterans.org.

Porter’s list of area Vietnam veterans was up into the 120s heading into the past week. She’s hoping it continues to grow and is glad to be able to do something to serve any and all the veterans.

“Honestly, it sends chills down your spine,” she said. “We have two veterans that attend our coffee crew, and they are both World War II veterans and they are both in their 90s. The stories they can tell, you could just listen to them all day. And they tell them like they were yesterday.

“They are amazing. Listening to all their stories is great. I feel like I’m the luckiest person in Wayne County.”