Two non-profits announce last week beginning of a capital campaign to construct it.
Frederick, Md (KM) Goodwill Industries of the Monocacy Valley and Platoon 22 have launched a capital campaign to pay for a new veterans center in Frederick. Danny Farrar, an Army veteran and co-founder of Platoon 22, says the center will be “a centralized hub where veterans can find job training, case management and holistic support. It will allow the community to embrace them, and help their transitioning back to being a civilian,” he says.
“We have an obligation to serve our veterans and their families,” says Michael Meyer, the CEO of Goodwill of the Monocacy Valley, in a statement. “This center will not only deliver best-in-class services, it will be a national model.” Meyer served as a US Marine.
In 2018, Goodwill of the Monocacy Valley announced it would expand its services to veterans and their families.
Farrar says the center will work with veterans who are experiencing difficulty obtaining services from the Department of Veterans Affairs. “Any roadblock that impedes them going to VA, a lot of them won;t go,” he says. “Our goal now, and that’s really what we’re going to be doing at the vet center too, is ensuring that we remove all those roadblocks, and help this become a seamless process so that they can be there and get the support that they need.”
Another goal for the center is to help prevent veteran suicides. “The majority of veterans that commit suicide are not involved in the VA health care system. And the VA health care system is a beast. It can take a lot to get through to it,” says Farrar. “Suicide is 10th leading cause of death in America, and veterans account for 20% of that number even though we make up less than 1% of the population.”
Farran says the center will be 20,000 square feet after it’s constructed, and it will serve veterans in the District, Maryland and Virginia region.
The announcement about the Capital Campaign to raise money for the veterans center took place last week at the Goodwill Industries of the Monocacy Valley Golden Gala at the New Spire Stage,
By Kevin McManus