In an effort to better connect Lewis County and surrounding area veterans with services and benefits, on Sunday, April 21, the Veterans Memorial Museum — located at 100 SW Veterans Way in Chehalis — will host the first of multiple upcoming Veterans Resource Fairs from noon to 2 p.m.
“We’re doing them on the weekends because a lot of these veterans have jobs or obligations that make it difficult to make it on a weekday,” Veterans Memorial Museum Executive Director Chip Duncan told The Chronicle.
This first event will feature more than a dozen resource and benefit providers.
“Everything from health care, insurance. The Tacoma Vet Center is going to be here. We’ve got educational organizations and ones working toward veteran employment,” Duncan said.
Additionally, Veterans Journey Forward, a nonprofit that works out of the museum and assists veterans in navigating benefits and services along with offering peer counseling services, will be on hand, along with a representative from the Lewis County Veterans Service Office with “houseless kits” for those experiencing homelessness.
Duncan said he hopes to hold Veterans Resource Fairs on a quarterly basis, or one approximately every three months, to better support the local veteran population.
“I want to do as many as we can. Veterans in our community need everything, from dealing with homelessness, to questions about insurance, to education, to unemployment, needing mental health counseling, or if a spouse needs counseling,” Duncan said. “That’s one big thing I stress about these resource fairs. It’s not just for the veterans. It’s for family members and spouses.”
For more information on Veterans Journey Forward, visit https://www.veteransjourneyforward.org/.
To learn more about the Veterans Memorial Museum and upcoming museum events, visit https://www.veteransmuseum.org/ or follow the museum on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/chehalisveteransmemorialmuseum.
