Vegas Station Casinos Chips Homeless Veterans

‘Month of Honor’ casino promotion helps village for homeless vets
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
By KEITH ROGERS

April 27, 2015

With a boost from Station Casinos’ “Month of Honor” promotion in May, Arnold Stalk expects his Veterans Village living center for homeless veterans will soar to a new level.

In addition to augmenting operation of the transitional and permanent residence, the effort by Station Casinos could help lay a financial foundation for a couple more floors that Stalk, founder and an architect, envisions on top of the two that already provide 125 rooms for homeless vets at the former Econo Lodge, 1150 Las Vegas Boulevard South

“When I meet with people, I don’t ask them for checks or donations,” Stalk said Monday after a tour of Veterans Village, a few blocks north of the Stratosphere. “We promote by attraction.

People get attracted to seeing the grassroots effort. They get attracted to our residents.”

The rippling effect of the branding of Veterans Village “has gotten a head of steam. This takes us to another level,” he said.

Through the end of May, all 19 Station Casinos properties and venues including cafes, casino bars, bingo rooms, spas and gaming areas will donate a portion of their proceeds and gaming winnings.

Lori Nelson, Station Casinos vice president of corporate communications, noted this is the first year of the effort and wasn’t sure how much it will generate.

“The more our guests enjoy our patriotic-themed offerings, the more money we can donate,” Nelson said.

The offerings include “patriotic pastries” and “patriotic poker,” as well as certain slot machines, designated blackjack tables and special bingo cards for players who want to help Veterans Village.

“We have obviously taken a deep interest and commitment in the local military community,” Nelson said. She was referring to Operation Thank You and the Military Mondays program that Station Casinos launched last year to thank local veterans with special discounts.
read more here

San Diego homeless veterans shelter to stay open for now

Vets homeless shelter to stay open
Last-minute call by mayor keeps shelter open, operator says
By Jeanette Steele
APRIL 6, 2013

The San Diego veterans winter shelter got a last-minute reprieve from Mayor Bob Filner and will not close Monday, said Phil Landis, president of Veterans Village of San Diego, the nonprofit group that runs the temporary facility for homeless veterans on the city’s behalf.

Landis said Saturday that he spoke to the mayor and Filner said he would find a way to keep the shelter open, probably through June 30. Landis didn't have details about where the city would find the funds. It costs $100,000 a month to support for the operation.

The mayor’s spokespeople didn’t return calls for comment Saturday evening.

The 150-bed veterans shelter opened in early December and was scheduled to close Monday.
read more here

Navy SEAL turns to treatment to heal a broken life

How is it easier to understand what it takes to heal a broken bone than it is to heal a broken life? Use whatever word you want, soul, mind, if you take issue with the choice of words in the following article, but if you do, then you are missing the most important message of it.

A broken leg bone will heal with just time but it doesn't heal right. The rest of the body suffers with endless pain, weakened by constantly compensating for the part that was broken. The pain will not allow true rest or sleep. Emotions get hung up on feeling the misery until every good experience is overcome by pain.

Yet when a broken bone is treated properly and is supported by a cast, it heals right. It heals in the right place after a doctor has reset it. Medication can numb the pain until it heals. The pain subsides as time goes by. The pain that remains is easy to adjust to and compensate for.

That is PTSD. It is a "break" that usually can't be seen by eyes unless it breaks through the skin. It can be healed with treatment but also needs to be healed with support. In this case, the support comes from family, friends, communities and mental health trauma experts. They become your cast so you are able to stand up supported until you can stand up on your own.

This story is about a Navy SEAL, as tough as they come, named Nathan. I urge you to read the whole article and if you take nothing else away from this, let it be the fact he was falling apart to the point where he wanted to end the pain he felt by ending his life.

Former Navy SEAL turns to treatment
Healing a broken life: Nathan lives with survivor’s guilt and PTSD following a failed Afghan mission
UT San Diego
By Jeanette Steele1
FEB. 2, 2013

It was 5 o’clock on a July morning, and Nathan’s mother stopped the car on Park Boulevard.

They looked at the collection of San Diego’s homeless veterans stretching up the block. It was a line of haggard faces, all waiting to get a warm meal and a cot for the weekend.

Nathan, a tall, broad-shouldered former Navy SEAL, was under a court order to join them. His precarious high-wire act fueled by alcohol and post-traumatic stress disorder had finally collapsed, ending in a dust-up outside a bar and a criminal charge.

A judge mandated treatment, starting with the “Stand Down” event for homeless vets.

Nathan remembers that morning, less than seven months ago. His mother cried.

His mind still carries the image of 11 buddies whose remains he had to gather after a disastrous June 2005 mission in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains. It was the single largest loss of life for Navy SEALs at that point since World War II: Operation Red Wings.

He was becoming one of them. He was already one of them.

“I was on the way out. I’ve put a gun in my mouth. I’ve felt it in my mouth. I’ve not known if there was a round in the chamber because I’ve been so drunk. And I’ve pulled the trigger,” said the 29-year-old San Diego native.

Nathan thinks combat vets, in particular those from special operations, should get at least three months to decompress before returning to normal American life. He calls the idea a “retreat,” where service members take classes on the interaction of PTSD and drugs or alcohol and tackle their VA paperwork.
read more here

Local Group Seeing More Female Veterans In Need

When I made the trip to Washington DC for Memorial Day weekend ride to the Wall with the Nam Knights, I visited Walter Reed as soon as I got off the plane. Time was limited for this trip, as well as finances, so I used my points and flew into Washington to meet my husband there. I prearranged a tour of Walter Reed so that I could visit the men and women wounded doing what we ask of them.

Honestly, I needed this visit. It has become increasingly difficult to do this work. I've been getting burnt out more often and struggling to find reasons to keep going. I thought meeting them would give me some inspiration to carry on since that is what they do everyday no matter what they face. I was not disappointed.

Totally exhausted, I was greeted by the VIP Ambassador, Rosa Benella. She explained that many of the patients would be heading out of the facility for weekend passes but there were several of them willing to be visited by a stranger like me. One by one, my energy went into overdrive just by shaking their hands and spending a few moments talking to them. Young men and a woman my daughter's age, severely wounded but managed to have such an inspirational outlook for their futures, thinking about any hardship on me seemed pretty petty.

The young woman I met lost a leg due to an RPG. As I listened to what happened to her, with her Mom standing there near tears, she told me how blessed she was that it did not hit her higher. She was an MP. This young woman faces the rest of her life without a leg but does not face it without hope. She has no regrets for doing what she felt compelled to do. Serving her country was worth any price she had to pay.

If you ever feel sorry for yourself, you need to know these men and women and then, then you will understand what the human spirit is capable of. For us to allow any of them to end up homeless, end up without jobs, or become so hopeless they think about ending their lives, it not only becomes a disgrace upon this nation, it is a loss for all of us.

Local Group Seeing More Female Veterans In Need
Veterans Village Of San Diego's Stand Down Event Begins July 16; Clothing Drive Starts Friday

POSTED: 5:04 pm PDT June 16, 2010
SAN DIEGO -- As a local group gears up for an annual event which helps homeless veterans, 10News learned the group is seeing a rise in female veterans in need of assistance.

Darcy Pavich, a counselor at Veterans Village of San Diego, is sorting clothes for an upcoming three-day event known as Stand Down -- an event that is in its 23rd year.

Pavich said, "They're [women] driving through combat zones. They're being attacked with IEDs just like the men."
read more here
http://www.10news.com/news/23927074/detail.html

Veterans Village of San Diego

For years readers of this blog have heard me say how the Vietnam Veterans lived up to the promise of never leaving one generations of veterans behind. This is one group that proves just how serious Vietnam Veterans were about this expression of dedication.

Courage to Call
24/7 Information & Support HelplineCourage to Call, (877) MyUsVet, (877) 698-7838, is a new Prevention and Early Intervention program in San Diego County, entirely staffed by military veterans who have recently served their country. Services are provided to those who have served in any Military or Guard (both active & former), their families and loved ones.

VVSD History
Over the years, VVSD has developed a continuum of care for veterans which stretches from the three days of outreach to homeless veterans at Stand Down to providing affordable, sober living houses for those who have successfully passed through VVSD's Veterans Rehabilitation Center.

1981: Veterans Village of San Diego was founded as the Vietnam Veterans of San Diego by five Vietnam Veterans, dealing with their own issues and addictions stemming from the Vietnam War. From the onset to the present day, VVSD has been dedicated to assisting needy veterans. 1984: Established "Landing Zone" on 11th Avenue near Market Street opened providing 44 licensed alcohol and drug treatment facility beds for Vietnam Veterans funded by County Alcohol and Drug Services.

1988: Established "Dust Off", an 18 bed transitional housing facility on 5th Avenue. During that same year VVSD founded Stand Down and served over 650 homeless veterans. VVSD is the model for the over 200 Stand Downs that now exist nationwide.
go here for more of VVSD's history

http://www.vvsd.net/history.htm

'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.
go here for more
http://www.startribune.com/local/27255284.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Veteran's Village of healing

Here's a link to a film my brother and I made recently for Veteran's Village, a charity founded by Nadia McCaffrey, mother of fallen American soldier Patrick McCaffrey.

Roughly 30% of American soldiers are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD. Veteran's Village is a healing oasis to help vets reintegrate into society.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q7cTlRjGeU

If you look over on the side bar, you'll see this video up for about a week or so.

It's hard to believe this much time has come and gone since I was first made aware of Nadia.

One Mother's War
Robert Durell / LAT
Nadia McCaffrey, who now operates a nonprofit grief counseling program and has become a leader in the Northern California antiwar movement, has been a lifelong pacifist and opposed her son's enlistment from the beginning.
By Jeff Nachtigal, Special to the Times
January 30, 2005
TRACY, Calif. -- On the day her son Patrick McCaffrey died on a blacktop farm road in northern Iraq, Nadia McCaffrey's war began.

Her first act was to invite the press to the Sacramento Airport when her 34-year-old son's flag draped-coffin was brought home at the end of June 2004.
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/magazine/la-tm-guard30jan30-sb,1,3668041.story?coll=la-home-magazine&ctrack=1&cset=true

Since then my admiration for her has only grown deeper. While she gets attention for the Veteran's Village, what her life's mission is, is something she does very quietly. She is changing lives. You won't hear her tell you of this one or that one who had their lives transformed because she thought waving a flag and slapping a yellow magnet to the back of a car was just not enough to support the veterans enough and did something about it, but you will hear it in her voice how much she really cares about all of them. You can hear it in this video. A remarkable woman indeed~

Nadia has been helping a friend of mine I care deeply for. No one will know his story or how much she has helped him. No one will know most of the stories of the lives placed into Nadia's loving hands or how they have gone from seeing lives and things destroyed to feeling love's healing grace and watching things grow on organic farms. They will not know how many have cried on her shoulder or thrived on a hug from this woman who has adopted all of them as if they were her own children. What no one will hear is precisely the reason she does it. No one would have been there to help them the way she has. Her reward is beyond a price tag. You cannot put a price on a life that may have ended had Nadia not been there doing this work.

While her work is priceless to those she helps, it is very expensive to operate. Veteran's Village needs donations. She needs you to support her so she can support them. If you've finally come to the point in your life where you are aware that waving a flag seems insignificant and a yellow ribbon on an SUV seems really stupid, donate to the work Nadia is doing to really welcome them home and to a home where they can feel as if they are a part of this beautiful land. Help them find a peaceful place to recover from the wounds they carry in their soul.

We know that when the mind, body and spirit are addressed in unison, there are miracles happening everyday. Nadia understands this. Do you? Veteran's Village is non-political and all she cares about is them. It doesn't matter if they agree with what is being done in Iraq or not. All she cares about is that they were willing to serve their country and they are now in need for doing so.



I am proud to call Nadia my friend and I hope one day to be able to meet her, but I have a feeling we already met in another time and another place. Should we not meet on this earth face to face, we'll meet later soul to soul.

Nadia McCaffrey gets to the point in radio interview

MON MAY 26, 2008
Memorial Day: The Past and the Present

Legacy Player:
Memorial Day originated after the Civil War, but a somber remembrance of fallen soldiers has also become a cheerful greeting of summer. Monday, on To the Point, how well does America honor those who've died for their country? Also, the GI Bill and the presidential campaign.
more…

One Mother's War
Robert Durell / LAT
Nadia McCaffrey, who now operates a nonprofit grief counseling program and has become a leader in the Northern California antiwar movement, has been a lifelong pacifist and opposed her son's enlistment from the beginning.
By Jeff Nachtigal, Special to the Times
January 30, 2005
TRACY, Calif. -- On the day her son Patrick McCaffrey died on a blacktop farm road in northern Iraq, Nadia McCaffrey's war began.

Her first act was to invite the press to the Sacramento Airport when her 34-year-old son's flag draped-coffin was brought home at the end of June 2004.


"Patrick was not a private person. All his life he loved people," Nadia McCaffrey explained. "Why should I hide him when he comes home? He would not have wanted that."

At a time when the Pentagon was attempting to keep photographs of the returning coffins out of the American press, the Sacramento Airport scene attracted international attention.

From the first interviews with newspaper obituary writers, Nadia was outspoken about her own opposition to the war as well as her son's growing reservations at the time he was killed.

"Patrick was overwhelmed by the hatred there for Americans and Europeans," Nadia told a reporter for The Times. "He was so ashamed by the prisoner abuse scandal. He even sent me an e-mail to tell me that not all the soldiers were like that. He said we had no business in Iraq and should not be there. Even so, he wanted to be a good soldier."

go here for more
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/magazine/la-tm-guard30jan30-sb,1,3668041.story

Published on Saturday, July 3, 2004 by the Independent/UK
The Son Who Came Home for the Fourth of July
Last week Nadia McCaffrey defied President Bush by allowing the media to view the coffin of her son, Patrick, killed in action in Iraq. Andrew Buncombe was invited to attend his funeral in Tracy, California



The photographs of Patrick McCaffrey laid out on the table at the front of the reception hall were the record of a life cut short. There were pictures of Patrick as a young boy, a head of curly brown hair, posing in his judo outfit. There was one of him dressed to play American football and another, taken a few years later, of Patrick wearing a tuxedo and probably heading out to the high school prom. There was one of him with his family - a wife, a little girl and a son so proud that his father was a member of the California National Guard that he had asked for his own set of dog-tags.


Finally there was a photograph of Patrick with his unit in Iraq. It had been taken shortly before the ambush in which Patrick was killed. In the picture he is laughing with his friends. He was 34-years-old and - according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count website - the 848th American soldier to die in Iraq.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0703-04.htm

Veteran's Village
Sgt Patrick R McCaffrey Sr
Foundation for War Veterans
http://www.veteransvillage.org/

Sonoma County says PTSD Combat Vets someone else's problem

PTSD home opposed for fear of ‘deranged’ vets

By Scott Lindlaw - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Mar 23, 2008 10:01:06 EDT

GUERNEVILLE, Calif. — Merry Lane, a cul-de-sac shaded by redwoods in Sonoma County wine country, would seem a pleasant place to recover from the psychic wounds of war. Nadia McCaffrey’s dream is to set up a group home there for veterans plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder.

But she is running into stiff resistance from the neighbors. They not only object to the brand-new structure itself, which looks like a four-story apartment house wedged amid their cabins, they are also worried that deranged veterans will move in.

At a community meeting in December, “one person was concerned that even firecrackers would set these people off,” said Andrew Eckers, 54, who lives across the street.

McCaffrey, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, said she has tried to reassure the neighbors, but “they are afraid of it because they don’t want to understand it.”

Projects similar to McCaffrey’s have cropped up in other communities across the country, with some also raising concerns from neighbors, in part because of the many news accounts of traumatized veterans committing suicide or murder.

“We’re all, frankly, failing in properly educating society about what PTSD is and what its effects are,” said Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran and chairman of VoteVets.org, a veterans advocacy group.

McCaffrey wants to set up at least three group homes around the country where vets with PTSD could live temporarily, and virtually for free, while they study at a college or work at a farm. Donations are paying for the projects, she said.

go here for the rest

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_ptsdhome_032308/

Guess what? It can make someone who has survived a mud slide jump too. Did they ever think of that? It can make someone who survived fires, or hurricanes or tornadoes or violent crime do the same. Did they ever think of that? How many of their neighbors have PTSD and they don't even have a clue about them? Do they want to get rid of any neighbor who has PTSD because they were a victim of a violent crime or horrific accident too? How about a firefighter who entered into one too many burning buildings? Or a police officer who had one too many shoot outs or had just seen too much? Do they want to get rid of them too? Enough people! There are enough people in this nation who have PTSD and most of them live right next door to you already.

Prevalence and incidence statistics for Post-traumatic stress disorder:
see also prevalence and incidence page for Post-traumatic stress disorder
Prevalance of Post-traumatic stress disorder: 5.2 million adult Americans (NIMH); 3.6% adults (NIMH); about 30% of war veterans.
Prevalance Rate: approx 1 in 52 or 1.91% or 5.2 million people in USA [about data]
Incidence (annual) of Post-traumatic stress disorder: 3.6% adults annually (NIMH)
Incidence Rate: approx 1 in 27 or 3.60% or 9.8 million people in USA [about data]
Incidence extrapolations for USA for Post-traumatic stress disorder: 9,791,999 per year, 815,999 per month, 188,307 per week, 26,827 per day, 1,117 per hour, 18 per minute, 0 per second.
Prevalance of Post-traumatic stress disorder: PTSD affects about 5.2 million adult Americans. (Source: excerpt from Anxiety Disorders: NIMH)
Incidence of Post-traumatic stress disorder: About 3.6 percent of U.S. adults ages 18 to 54 (5.2 million people) have PTSD during the course of a given year. (Source: excerpt from Facts about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: NIMH)
Top
About statistics:This page presents a variety of statistics about Post-traumatic stress disorder. The term 'prevalence' of Post-traumatic stress disorder usually refers to the estimated population of people who are managing Post-traumatic stress disorder at any given time. The term 'incidence' of Post-traumatic stress disorder refers to the annual diagnosis rate, or the number of new cases of Post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosed each year.
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/p/post_traumatic_stress_disorder/stats.htm

Yes firecrackers will make them jump! That does not mean they are any more dangerous than anyone else in the neighborhood and statistically speaking the are more apt to offer a neighbor a helping hand than to do anything wrong to them.

The attitude of people really makes me sick sometimes. They treated people with AIDS the same way thinking they would "catch" it. They wouldn't want a bunch of combat veterans living near them so they can recover from serving them? They ought to be fully ashamed of themselves.
Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.namguardianangel.blogspot.com/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Navy gets it right with Veterans Village

Veterans Village opens doors to homeless vets

Friday, December 07, 2007

By MC1 Christal A. Bailey Navy Compass Staff

Homeless veterans now have a place to call home during the cold, damp winter months thanks to a partnership with the City of San Diego, Veteran's Village of San Diego and VVSD Navy Region Southwest.

All three entities were represented during the grand opening at the Homeless Veterans Shelter located in the Midway/Rosecrans area of San Diego Dec. 5.

According to VVSD Vice President and Chief of Operations Officer, Andre Simpson, the shelter was home to more than 475 unduplicated homeless veterans last year. He said he hopes the shelter gives these veterans the chance to find the help they need.

"We have homeless vets living in the streets," he said. "Here's a way, we as citizens, can help someone who has given so much for their country."

The shelter is in its second year of a five year contract with the Navy. The Navy provides the land every year where the winter shelter is located. Naval Base Point Loma Commanding Officer, Capt. Mark Patton said this agreement helps avoid the hassle of the city having to vote on land use.

"It's important for the Navy to associate with the city to work on issues like this," Patton said. "The Navy had some extra land. This is much easier to do on Navy property than city property."
go here for the rest
http://www.navycompass.com/news/newsview.asp?c=231159

I get reports from all over the country on homeless veterans. They tug at my heart harder than veterans with PTSD do. They have fallen so far through the cracks that they can't see a way out. They don't trust anyone. Trust is something that had been beaten out of them from too many years of holding out their hand for help, only to have it slapped away. Family and friends abandon them as they feel they have nothing left to give, they end up on the streets. Hope is a foreign word. For the homeless veterans with PTSD it is worse because most also feel there is something wrong inside of them that makes them undeserving of any kind of help. Our military men and women have self determination drilled into them, pride, courage and whatever it is that they were born with making them hold such a deep need to defend this nation, all stand in the way of them seeking help.

I've heard it all through the years, along with a lot of regret, there is pain, hopelessness, but what I hardly ever see is bitterness. They never regret their service and most would do it again if they were asked to. Yet we need to wonder what it is inside of them that would make them willing to defend any of us, when we have forgotten them. kc