Vietnam vets at Jacksonville convention step up for their homeless post-9/11 brethren
Jacksonville.com
By Matt Soergel
Posted: August 16, 2013
Vietnam vets in town for their annual convention kicked in money, a few dollars at a time, to help out a Jacksonville center for homeless post-9/11 veterans.
Donating was an easy decision for Robert Stewart, an Army vet from the city of Oregon, Ohio.
“Every veteran here, in the blink of an eye, can be homeless,” he said. “And we don’t leave our own — we take care of our own.”
Friday conventioneers gave a giant-sized check for $4,000 to Five Star Veterans Center, a transitional center that now has 20 once-homeless vets living there.
That amount will grow as the Vietnam Veterans of America convention continues at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront.
“I’ll walk out of here and someone will give me five bucks or 10 or 20,” said Nancy Switzer of Rochester, N.Y., who helped organize the fundraising through her group, Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America.
Five Star’s been struggling for money since the scandal in March that torpedoed its major contributor, Allied Veterans of the World.
An investigation into racketeering and money-laundering at gaming centers owned by Allied Vets led to 57 arrests and the resignation of the state’s lieutenant governor.
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