Volunteer is proud to be part of Operation Reveille to House our Homeless Veterans
Happy Veterans Day!
Today we are proud to say that our wonderful employees have worked for the past three days to get 5 apartments ready for deserving Veterans and their families.
Four Veterans will be housed in Cookeville and one in Crossville. There will be a key ceremony at The Cookeville First United Methodist Church’s Jeff Wall Hall at 1 p.m. today to hand over the keys to their new apartments. The apartments are furnished with food and furniture thanks to many wonderful donations from around the Cookeville and Crossville communities.
Here are a list of companies and people that donated their time and/or food and furniture for our Veterans.
Ms. Sadie in Rickman
Michael Benson
Spring Leaf Financial
Interstate Drive U-haul
Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton
Putnam Co. Exec Randy Porter
Cumberland Co. Mayor Mayberry
VSO Mark Harris
VSO Bill Ward
Crossville DVOP Walter Wyatt
Cookeville CBOC SW Stefanie Carreiro & SW Rhonda Gooding
Tabors furniture
Mayberrys furniture
Wholesale furniture
King’s construction
Ckvl Food Lion
Ckvl Save-a-lot
Crossville Housing Authority
Putnam Properties
First United Methodist
The Herald Citizen
Zimmer Broadcasting
Susie Cantrell & Sunday school class
Mr. & Mrs. Peppermay
Lois Neal
Alana Knight
Renee Johnson
Luke Eldridge
Gary Gallons
Theodore Young
Marc Horowitz
Ron Rohrbach
Frank Ogilvie
“We’re not doing anything special,” Ron Rohrbach, program director for the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program or HVRP at Plateau Mental Health Center, said. “It’s what we do on a regular basis. It’s an opportunity to get a lot done in one day.”
The effort is being pulled together by an alphabet soup of organizations. According to Tony Scionti Jr., a veteran employment specialist, the groups are HVRP, MASH (Mission Accomplished Stable Housing), COC (Continuum of Care), HUD VASH (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) and other agencies throughout the community.
Operation Reveille is designed to show the community that there are homeless veterans and the fact that we have the community and organizations willing to come together to solve that problem,” he added.
“The biggest thing is raising awareness,” said Alana Knight, MASH case manager. “If you don’t work with them, you don’t realize how many there are. They’re a forgotten population.”
An estimated 30 to 35 veterans are homeless now in the Upper Cumberland region.
“Last year, we served 200 veteran families across 26 counties in Tennessee,” said Renee Johnson, MASH referral coordinator.
“We’ve housed over 600 since our program began,” said Carla Lawson, MASH outreach coordinator.
The homeless usually only have what they have been able to carry with them, so when they do find a place to live, they start with nothing.
“You’ve got a stove and food, but how are you going to cook it?” Rohrbach asked.
Rohrbach, along with other homeless agency representatives, plan to “go homeless” for a week to raise awareness about the problem of homelessness, Nov. 12-20, for National Homelessness and Hunger Awareness Week.
To donate to help the homeless, visit the gofundme page at https://www. gofundme.com/ 5676b8ww.
