We began our project after Richard Jones, cofounder of Sonoma County Vet Connect, spoke to our Ethics class in March of 2011. We both hold veterans close to our heart as Elissa’s brother Richie is currently serving overseas and Matt’s father served in the Navy during the Vietnam War.

Sonoma County Vet Connect is a Veteran outreach organization that works to get veterans off the streets and into housing. They also help Veterans work towards getting the benefits they deserve by providing assistance with the sometimes daunting task of dealing with the VA.

Our first trip to Vet Connect was during our spring vacation of last year. We instantly found a connection to the Vets and Randy Flater, who would soon become our mentor. Randy is a retired Vietnam Veteran who spends most of his time volunteering for Vet Connect and other Veteran organizations around Sonoma County. From the beginning Randy helped us immensely with getting our project started in the right direction. That direction was fundraising. This presented our first challenge in our project. None of us had any experience in fundraising. After throwing out many ideas we settled on donation tables outside of local supermarkets. We have done this for almost 4 months now and have been extremely successful, bringing in almost 2,000 dollars to benefit homeless veterans and other veterans in need.

As we proceed in our project we are continuing to explore more fundraising options. We are currently planning to have a banquet dinner in mid- May, with all proceeds going towards Vet Connect and the veterans that frequent it. We plan on having Johnny Garlic’s cater the event along with sponsorships by other local supermarkets and businesses.

So far the most rewarding aspect of our project has been the veterans we encounter every Tuesday. There are too many stories to list in this short summary, but one that stands out happened just last week. Jim Rose, the poet of Vet Connect, has been writing poems and sharing them with the people at Vet Connect the entire time we have been volunteering there. Recently, a woman from Vet Connect published his poems that he had shared with us. Jim, who wasn’t at Vet Connect because he was feeling under the weather, ran from his home on E Street all the way to the Veterans Memorial Building when he heard the news about his book. Seeing the smile on Jim’s face not only made our day but will be a memory of Vet Connect that we will not soon forget.