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News

Lunch will honor troops

Event will also serve to spread info on resources available to veterans

by GABRIELLE LYONS
The Daily Cougar

Veterans Day is months away, but a coalition of campus organizations will show appreciation for University veterans and their families with a free lunch at noon today in the second floor atrium of the A.D. Bruce Religion Center.

The Veterans, Troops and Families Appreciation Luncheon, sponsored by the Veterans Service Office, will show the UH community's appreciation for those who have served in the military and will help gauge veterans' needs.

"This will give us an indication of what their needs are because we don't really know what their needs are as families of veterans themselves," Allen Grundy, program coordinator for the VSO, said. "Some need psychological services, some need financial services and some need career services, so we don't know."

The idea for a free lunch came from a conference held at Texas State University in September 2006 that focused on issues faced by returning combat veterans.

"Some issues were … 15 percent unemployment, 33 percent having emotional disabilities. Coming out, many of them weren't using their benefits from the G.I. Bill," Grundy said. "From that conference we kind of felt that here in Houston, since Houston is such a large city, that we need to develop a support group that will benefit these veteran students and their families."

The VSO held a seminar called Veterans Speak Out in November 2006 with representatives from several agencies that provide benefits for veterans, Grundy said.

"We were kind of a little shocked because we thought with this much wealth of information and resources that we'd have a lot of veterans come out," Grundy said. "And maybe only 25 to 30 persons came out -- small for the size of the campus. The campus has about 1,000 veterans.

"So we sat down together as a group and talked about what would possibly bring these veterans to information sessions like this and it came out of the blue -- perhaps a veterans support group which would involve families."

A committee, which included representatives from the UH Center for Students with Disabilities, UH Counseling and Psychological Services, University Career Services, and the Campus Ministers Association, was formed after those talks to discuss how to develop better services for veterans.

"This gives us a chance to assess hopefully through this first program various needs that we can assist the veterans and their families to stabilize themselves and get on their feet," Grundy said. 

"We have come to grips with, besides this being a commuter college, that we need to make this college a little more comfortable for veterans, because they do have special issues. They are a lot more mature."

Grundy said many veterans may not be aware of the services they have access to. 

"We have a lot of resources here that we think the veterans don't have a clue about -- I didn't," Grundy, a Vietnam War-era veteran, said. 

"As we try to open this forum up, this appreciation day up, we hope that they feel at least UH has said to them, ‘We appreciate you.'"

The Veterans, Troops and Families Appreciation Luncheon will feature door prizes, the playing of "Taps" and remarks from a University representative. 

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