The Vet Fest in Houghton County has become one of the best veterans service events in the state for connecting people. This year’s event will bring organizations from across the western Upper Peninsula to work with veterans and educate the community about various military benefits.
The Iron Mountain VA Hospital has a significant presence at this event, and it has a women’s health coordinator. That’s a great question about female veterans applying for the benefits. For whatever reason, female veterans are less likely they’ve been found to apply for their benefits and that is a big push within the Veterans Administration, within our county, all across the state to identify and connect female veterans with their benefits. – Joe Battisfore, VSO Director, Houghton County
Houghton County VSO director Joe Battisfore says many veterans might start by connecting with fellow veterans before connecting with VSO offices.
All the way across any period, we do share experiences from serving our country. And that idea of an older generation of veterans helping the younger generation through readjustment back to civilian life is invaluable. – Joe Battisfore, VSO Director, Houghton County
Vet Fest on June 11th will invite VFW and American Legion organizations, staff from the Iron Mountain Veterans Hospital, organizations and non-profits serving veterans, representatives of the Detroit Veterans Affairs regional office, and many more.
There are a number of benefits that can apply to survivors of veterans. And we are constantly scrubbing. We’re doing it right now. We’re scrubbing our database, trying to find widows who may have even been turned down under old rules that may not apply now. So that’s another reason for people who may have gotten one answer maybe five or 10 years ago to come in and talk to somebody and just double-check to see if anything’s changed. So we are aggressively trying to find widows and survivors of veterans and veterans themselves just to see if we can go back over their benefits and look and see if anything’s changed. – Joe Battisfore, VSO Director, Houghton County
Baltimore says veterans from all over the Upper Peninsula, and even as far away as northern Wisconsin have attended in the past. The Houghton County VSO also encourages families and service member partners to attend. Sometimes a veteran’s wife or husband can help push them to look into their benefits. And education about programs can help families find the resources they need. Vet Fest will begin at 11 am inside the Michigan Tech Student Development Complex on June 11th.
