'Veterans Village' being considered for Sauk Centre campus

'Veterans Village' being considered for Sauk Centre campus
The villages aren't medical facilities but aim to help veterans heal their emotional wounds.

By CHAO XIONG, Star Tribune

Last update: August 21, 2008 - 9:24 PM
Alice Karakas wants to turn a vacant home-school campus in Sauk Centre into a rehabilitation facility for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans left unmoored by warfare.

The 77.5-acre campus already has dormitories, a barn and classroom buildings. Karakas hopes it'll become the latest in a small number of "Veterans Villages" started in 2006 by a grieving California woman who lost her son, Patrick Ryan McCaffrey Sr., in Iraq.

Nadia McCaffrey will be in Sauk Centre next week to visit the campus and make a final decision about pursuing a village there. She's been corresponding with Karakas for months.

"It's a marvelous place," McCaffrey said from Wellsville, N.Y., where she is overseeing the start of the fourth Veterans Village. "This sounds like a dream coming true."

Karakas moved to Sauk Centre eight years ago and discovered the Oak Ridge Campus while walking her dog. Karakas said she follows veterans affairs closely and thought the campus would make a good rehabilitation site. She soon discovered McCaffrey's villages and foundation, the Patrick Ryan McCaffrey Sr. Foundation for Combat Veterans, and began lobbying for a Veterans Village in her northwestern Minnesota town.
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