Vital counseling for Island veterans will continue at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, funded by donors who have contributed enough to keep the program going after its federal contract ends on June 30.
“So far, we’ve already raised $44,000,” MVCS counselor Tom Bennett told an enthusiastic audience at the Veterans of Foreign Wars restaurant in Oak Bluffs Saturday afternoon. “We are determined to continue this service to our veterans, and we will do that,” said Mr. Bennett, a Vietnam war-era vet who has led the veterans readjustment counseling program for more than 40 years.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which began supporting the MVCS service in 1986 to spare Island veterans from having to travel off-Island for counseling, announced this spring that it will not renew the contract. The news drew a flood of contributions, Mr. Bennett said, and MVCS will keep fundraising to ensure the veterans program continues in future years.
“We’d like to earn enough to serve our veterans for the next three years, so we don’t have to go and do fundraisers every year,” he said.
At the VFW Saturday, veteran Bob Tankard, who works with Mr. Bennett in veterans outreach for MVCS, had more good news for the crowd. The Island Housing Trust’s veterans housing project in Oak Bluffs is nearing completion, Mr. Tankard said.
“The groundbreaking ceremony will take place in October, and about this time next year we’ll have our veterans moving in,” Mr. Tankard said, to applause.
Saturday’s celebration at the VFW, organized by singer-songwriter Rose Guerin, was also a live-music benefit, with a line-up of Island musicians and a wide-mouthed tip jar for donations to the counseling program. The event raised $3,769 as of Monday.
Ms. Guerin told the Gazette that news the VA was dropping its support spurred her to plan the show.
“I said, we don’t need them. We can do it ourselves,” Ms. Guerin said.
Pulling the benefit together was easy, she said, given the number of Island performers who support veterans and their causes — including housing. Ellen Biskis, of the group Missis Biskis, works for Island Housing Trust, musician Rick Padilla was in the Army tank service, and singer-songwriter Jodie Treloar Sampson is an acupuncture therapist who works with veterans.
Ms. Treloar Sampson also is a member of the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services board and co-hosted Saturday’s benefit, which began with a uniformed honor guard of Vineyarders from multiple branches of service. The Marines were represented by Vietnam veteran Woody Williams, who started the Island’s first combat veterans discussion group in the early 1980s.
Mr. Bennett credited Mr. Williams with originating the readjustment counseling program, by seeking out professional help for group members.
“It was a group for veterans helping each other, and they were running into some problems because the guys were reliving the trauma [so] they wanted a counselor,” Mr. Bennett said.
Mr. Williams and his wife Phyllis smiled from their table as applause filled the room.
For more information, visit mvcommunityservices.org/services/veterans-services/
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