Helping out veterans
Local organization sets up in new building even as the need continues to grow locally

By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Friday, October 23, 2009 11:35 AM PDT

Ron Verini, one of the founders of Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida, shows some of the bird feeders that will be taken to the Veteran’s Home in The Dalles. The feeders were made by Don Pittmann, Vale.

ONTARIO — They offer information, assistance, free coffee, conversation and a listening ear, and, among other things, Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida also extends an open door to veterans or active-duty personnel and their families who have a need and are looking for support and/or understanding.

“It’s set up like a U.S.O.,” Ron Verini, one of the volunteers and a public outreach and legislative advocate, said of the office, which has been open since early September.

“There is free coffee. There is fresh popcorn. There are not any dues. There is not a cost to them (the veterans),” he said.

The office is situated at 89O S.W. Fourth Ave., Ontario, in the Park Center.

Officially established as a non-profit corporation in 2008, Verini said he wanted to establish some type of organization to help veterans for several years because of how he was treated as Vietnam veteran.

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“He wanted to help veterans, no matter what their service,” Doug Dean, Verini’s brother, said.

Verini began his quest shortly after he retired from the financial business and moved to Ontario. His initial focus was to help veterans groups in the community with their programs to teach and promote democracy. He said, though, he wanted something wider in scope and decided to open a center that served all veterans. He also wanted to create a kind of “one-stop-shopping” point for all veterans and organizations — “to bring all the information to one point.”

Working with local partners such as the food bank, food pantries, Lifeways and a variety of agencies and organizations, Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida try to help veterans, active duty troops and family members to get what assistance they need, from food to benefit information.

“We help them find jobs,’ Verini said.

The office has a list of job opportunities from the Oregon Employment Department.

“We are here to help people,” Verini said.

Besides working with veterans organizations, the advocates coordinate with the Family Support Group for the National Guard, helping them put on various events for guard members and their families, as well as provide predeployment and deployment support.

“We send boxes to deployed troops, usually every month,” Verini said. He also said his organization is part of the “Pencils for Peace,” program, which sends school supplies to children overseas and Operation Quilt, a program that provides quilts for the troops.

“Individuals and groups in the community make them,” he said.

But, they do more than just help local veterans.

“We’re a national organization that has its headquarters in Ontario,” Verini said.

With the help of the Internet, Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida boasts a world-wide reach, and have already received inquires from across the nation. They can often can refer people to resources in their own local areas.

“We have no boundaries,” Verini said

Veteran Advocates work under an advisory board and have a cadre of 25 to 50 volunteers who drop in and out of the office, but the main office volunteer staff besides Verini includes Dean, who is treasurer for the organization; Charlene Pelland, secretary and Chris Sandoval, who does the information technology. Volunteers includes veterans, relatives of veterans or other community members interested in veterans affairs. As long as the door is open and\or a light is in the office, people will be able to get help, Sandoval said. Sometimes they are there until 10 p.m., he said. They are all surprised by the response to having an office open, with people stopping in all day long.

Donations to the center go to programs which help veterans. Money to operate the office is generated through income of their little store which sells items such as flags, caps, ties and other things with a patriotic theme, plus income from photographs that Sandoval takes and computer work he does under the umbrella Veteran Advocates. In addition, Veteran Advocates of Ore-Ida is source for information about the military. The library includes U.S. military history from the Civil War to current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.