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 Roll On.......... To all Veterans and Military Supporters: Here are some exciting FREE opportunities for the injured, ill and wounded veteran community. Please share this information widely as everything is FREE! A FREE swim clinic is offered by the Dare2tri ParaTriathlon club, a collaborative program of the Chicago Park District and Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association. The event will take place at Fosco Park in Chicago on Saturday, February 4 and there are different times set aside for each disability group. • FREE with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Wounded Heroes Foundation- A collaborating effort to offer a FREE camp for wounded, ill or injured military personnel who are interested to learn more about WINTER sports. The camp will take place February 23-26 in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin and includes introductions to the sports of: downhill skiing, cross country skiing, biathlon, sled hockey and more (Please see the attached). • FREE Paralympic military camp opportunities in 2012 hosted by the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, AL. The application is attached and can also be accessed online here: http://www.lakeshore.org/index.php?submenu=Lima_Foxtrot&src=gendocs&ref=Lima Foxtrot&category=Main Please contact Pamela Redding below if you have any questions or concerns: Pamela J. Redding Director of Paralympic and Disability Sport http://veterans.branson.com/2012-hand-in-hand-branson-honors-purple-heart-recipients/ REMEMBER YOU CAN REGISTER ON LINE BUT YOU MUST COME TO REGISTRATION TO GET YOUR ARM BAND. BRING PROOF YOU REGISTERED Registration: 8:00am – 12:00pm FREE Where: Factory Merchant’s Mall Pick up arm bands,(You Must have an arm band) coffee & cookies, fellowship FREE Opening Ceremony: 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. FREE Where: Hamner Barber Theatre 3090 Shepherd of the Hills Expwy Branson, MO Lighting of the Cauldrons, Special presentation by the National Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Officers on benefits, PTSD, and when & how to fill out forms. We will break into groups and throughout the 3 days service officers will be available to assist if you have specific questions or needs. We will have the Drawing for the fishing tournament, you must be present when your name is drawn in order to participate. Entertainment Show: 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. FREE Hamner Barber Theatre 3090 Shepherd of the Hills Expwy Branson, MO Entertainers from the shows and the area perform. This is amazing and FREE Fishing Tournament Noon Where: Scotty’s Dock & Marina 500 S Boxcar Willie Dr Branson (if your name is drawn to fish) For those who are not fishing, which includes women & men, we are planning a special Branson Culinary Experience. After we send off our fishermen we will all climb aboard the Ducks & head to the Branson Landing. We will go to special shops & have tasting experiences learn how to create different tastes with unique spices. Cantina Laredo will teach us how to make guacamole, table side. What fun!! Register on line, so we know how much transportation to prepare for. We will be done with our excursion in time to meet with the Fishing Boys and see who the big winner is. Then on to the Fish Fry Fish Fry: 6:00 p.m. Where: TBD Free for Purple Heart Recipients & $10 for spouses, significant others and the general public. Fish, hush puppies, cole slaw, beans, coffee, all you can eat & a live variety band. We have a blast dancing & singing along. April 28, 2012 – Saturday Titanic – Time to be determined. It is the 100 year Anniversary of the Titanic and they have graciously invited all Purple Heart Recipients to board the ship for free. There will be an admissions charge for spouses, significant others, family etc. This is one of my favorite attractions in Branson and I am so excited that you will have the opportunity to be apart of their celebration. You will be able to register on line for this as well, so we have a head count. Motorcycle Run Our very own Sheriff, Jimmie Russell coordinates a motorcycle run and it is a huge success. This year our riders will be going further and when details are firm, we will have it on site you will know where to meet and time, etc. Closing Ceremony: 2:30 p.m. Where: Hamner Barber Theatre 3090 Shepherd of the Hills Expressway, Branson. We will greet the motorcyclists and then go inside for a special closing ceremony and a special guest speaker, Staff Sergeant Robert Henline, Army, (ret). Department of IL Military Order of the Purple Heart The officers, members, supporters and faculty advisers of Combat to College would like to thank you and the Military Order of the Purple Heart for bringing out the Movable Wall to Moraine Valley Community College for our Veterans Day ceremony on November 11, 2011. Speaking personally, it was a heartfelt and fitting tribute to our brave men and women from Illinois who, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “gave the last full measure of devotion”. Attached find the pictures I took that day. Please distribute them as you see fit, especially to the members of MOPH who were present that day. Take Care and God Bless You, and God Bless the United States of America. Richard D. Nowak
Veterans rehabilitation program receives grantPhotos GREG STANLEY | RRSTAR.COM
Mark Lawrence and his Lakeland terrier, Katie, have welcomed home more than 20,000 troops to the Rockford area from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Circle of Change, which Lawrence participated in, was awarded $5,000 Tuesday from the Military Order of the Purple Heart.  By Greg Stanley
Posted Apr 14, 2010 @ 12:33 AM
Last update Apr 14, 2010 @ 12:46 AM
ROCKTON — Sometimes it takes an extra step for a veteran to readjust to society. Retired Navy Capt. Lou Matjasko had seen many veterans in his work at Veterans Affairs shy away from public interaction and isolate. Seeking a way to help, he contacted Pat Muller, a dog trainer who had been using mistreated dogs to help foster kids develop social skills. Matjasko wanted to create a similar program for veterans. In 2008, Matjasko and Muller, along with a group of veterans, created Circle of Change, a Rockton-based program where veterans suffering from mental trauma rehabilitate abused, neglected and unwanted dogs and in the process sort out many of their own issues. On Tuesday, Circle of Change was awarded a $5,000 grant from the Military Order of the Purple Heart to continue its work and grow the program. “Our goal is to help veterans, and we know that Circle of Change is directly helping veterans,” said Jock Difford, commander of the northern Illinois chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. Completely volunteer-run The all-volunteer Circle of Change program is not funded by the VA and had a budget last year of just $11,000. Circle of Change is a 13-week program. Six to eight veterans work in a group to train dogs under Muller’s supervision. There are four programs that run consecutively every year. The veterans are recommended from the Rockford VA office, but the program is not a prescribed VA treatment method. Participants are volunteers and range from a 90-year-old World War II veteran to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Unlike other programs that use animals, the goal of Circle of Change is not to give a veteran a dog, Matjasko said. In fact, the program is set up in a way so that the veterans don’t bond with any one animal. “Many veterans don’t want the responsibility or don’t have the means to own a dog,” Matjasko said. ‘I have a reason to get up’ Vietnam veteran Mark Lawrence joined the program as a way to reduce the amount of medication he was taking for his post-traumatic stress disorder. “(PTSD) is like having a stroke,” he said. “I couldn’t work, I couldn’t do anything.” Lawrence said he still suffers from tremors, severe nightmares and depression. Since joining Circle of Change, he has reduced the amount of medication he is taking by 50 percent. “I can see the help it has given me,” he said. “I have a reason to get up in the morning. I can play golf, where before I just wanted to hide in a corner.” Formal evaluation needed Lawrence and Katie have greeted over 20,000 veterans coming home from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. “Veterans love Katie,” Lawrence said. “They come up and say that they want one just like her.” Circle of Change will use the grant money to help the VA formally evaluate the program, Matjasko said. Right now, the only evidence of the benefits is the personal testimony of the participants, which is not enough for the VA to justify funding. Matjasko hopes that the program will become a revolutionary way to deal with mental trauma and that more veterans will seek to join. To learn more about the program, contact Circle of Change at 815-262-1491. Staff writer Greg Stanley can be reached at gstanley@rrstar.com or 815-987-1369. We are very Proud of our young Member Patriot Blake Leitch,He is “Making a Difference!”
Editor’s Note: Illinois Patriot Education Fund is excited to announce an addition to our team – our intern, BlakeLeitch. Blake is an Army veteran who was deployed to Iraq in 2005, where he earned an Army Accommodation Medal and the Purple Heart for wounds sustained in action. For his service, he also earned the rank of Sergeant. Upon separating from the military in 2009, Blake started college at Lake Land College in Mattoon, Ill., to pursue a communications degree and better prepare himself to serve the veteran community.
Since then he became involved with IPEF’s partner, Student Veterans of America, founding an SVA chapter at Lake Land. In the spring of 2010, his fellow students elected him as the college’s Student Trustee. In this role, he had the opportunity to represent his peers on the Illinois Community College Board. He was then elected to serve on the ICCB’s Executive Board and was the only student representative chosen by the White House to represent all community college students at The White House Summit on Community Colleges in San Diego and Indianapolis. Blake was later given the Student Trustee Excellence Award for his dedication to student veterans and college completion. Blake is now continuing his communications studies at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill., and resides in Mattoon with his wife, Jackie, and toddler son, Spencer. Throughout his internship, Blake will be blogging about his experiences. Following is his first entry. ________________________________________________________________________________________
Now let’s back up. I am a disabled combat veteran who, like countless others returning from a tour in Iraq, knew that I needed to get some education in order to compete with today’s tough job market. Within my first semester into college I quickly realized that acquiring an education was not going to be a cake walk and that there were a lot of gaps in the new G.I. Bill. I went from not really being sure what I wanted to do with my life to being completely sold on dedicating my every breath to helping my fellow veterans. It did not take long for me to get my feet wet in the veteran community. First of all, I now travel the nation sharing the story of my experience in Iraq. I speak about how sharing what happened to me and my fellow comrades helps me combat my Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I also share how, after being involved in more than 20 roadside explosions, I am still alive. Although I did take some shrapnel and have a bad back from the whiplash I endured, I am very lucky that I walked away with so few injuries. In addition to traveling and sharing my story I started an SVA chapter at my college and was able to form a scholarship for veterans after just one year of the club being active. This year I am looking forward to figuring out more ways to help my fellow veterans, which I believe will be much easier now that I am interning with IPEF. There are countless loopholes in the system for veterans in education, and I must stand by my warrior ethos: I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, and I will never leave a fallen comrade. I live by this and if we let a veteran fall through the cracks then we have left a fallen comrade. I look forward to what the next year holds and trust that while serving as an intern with IPEF great strides will be made to make it easier for the heroes of this great state and their families to have a better life because they were able to get a well-deserved education. Along the way, I will be posting from the perspective of a veteran, a young father and husband, and an intern working in the trenches to better the lives of my fellow veterans. Stay tuned with me on this journey and, in the process, I hope you will be inspired to do what you can to help. – Blake Leitch, blake@illinoispatriot.com |
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