Naval Hospital Bremerton Staff Support Local Veteran's Event

BREMERTON, Wash. (NNS) -- The Naval Hospital Bremerton Chief Petty Officer's Mess and 1st Class Petty Officers Association gathered at the Sheridan Community Center in East Bremerton April 26 to help arrange the annual Kitsap Area Veterans Alliance (KAVA) Stand-Down the next day.

The spring stand-down featured free services for veterans and their families that included hot meals, groceries, clothing, sleeping bags and camping gear, hygiene items, haircuts, legal and financial assistance, employment referrals, dental and vision screening, free voicemail and mail address, and help with changing child-support payments, dealing with foreclosure, driver's license suspension, veterans affairs health benefits and claims, housing, war benefits and Department of Social and Health Services enrollment.

Kitsap Area Veterans Alliance Chairman Dean Hearing, a founding member of KAVA and Navy veteran, said the help provided by the hospital the day before the event was a key factor in the event's success on Saturday, which was sponsored by Kitsap Area Veterans Alliance, Kitsap County Veterans Program, City of Bremerton and Kitsap Sun newspaper.

"We were able to get everything set up Friday, so when Saturday came around we were ready," he said. "We served out more than 100 meals and all the chiefs who came back on Saturday to help cook and serve up all the food were really important to us. We had a huge line of people that went around the building prior to opening."

Community relations events like the KAVA Veteran's stand-down are a unique opportunity for active duty service members to provide their volunteer services. Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Ashley Flanagan of NHB's Staff Education and Training Department said she has always gotten involved wherever she's been stationed in her Navy career.

"I always try to get to at least a few COMRELS," she said. "You get things done for people. It's always pretty fun with painting an orphanage, building a fence or something like this veteran's event. Things are always happening and people volunteering always get something out of their time."

For recently separated service members the veteran's experience at the Sheridan Community Center was a new one. It provided solid fundamental knowledge about benefits and other services offered by local and government organizations.

"I recently got out after about ten years in the Air Force and I just got the word this was coming up last week," said Marcia Howard of Port Orchard. "They provided a lot of valuable information and we're very glad to have come. Now we're in the system for all the upcoming things regarding being a United States military veteran."

For more information about Veteran's Services visit the Kitsap County Personnel and Human Services in Port Orchard or the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs.

http://www.kitsapgov.com/hr/wsolympic/veterans/VA.htm or http://www.va.gov/>
For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.>
For more news from Naval Hospital Bremerton, visit www.navy.mil/local/nhb/>