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City Mission celebrates second anniversary of Crabtree-Kovacicek Veterans House

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Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

Residents of the Washington City Mission’s Crabtree Kovacicek Veterans House raise a flag in front of the facility in this file photo from 2020. The shelter for homeless veterans opening in 2018.

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Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

Dean Gartland, right, President and CEO of Washington City Mission, closes a ceremony with prayer Wednesday, in celebration of the second anniversary of the Crabtree Kovacicek Veterans House.

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Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

A new flag was raised at the Washington City Mission’s Crabtree Kovacicek Veterans House on Wednesday. The facility can house up to 22 veterans.

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Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

Veterans begin to raise a new flag at the Washington City Mission’s Crabtree Kovacicek Veterans House during a ceremony on Wednesday.

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Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

This file photo shows the Washington City Mission celebrating the second anniversary of its Veterans Home last July.

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Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

A flag raising ceremony at Washington City Mission’s Crabtree Kovacicek Veterans House held Wednesday marked the house’s second anniversary.

In early 2019, Joe Finley found himself in a hospital emergency room, suffering from acute pancreatitis.

“I almost drank myself to death,” said Finley, 58.

But during a 17-day stay at Gateway Rehabilitation Center, Finley, a U.S. Air Force veteran, heard a staff member from Washington City Mission talk with residents about his battles with alcoholism, and how the City Mission had helped him find a path to sobriety and happiness.

“He talked with a group of us about how he’d been a resident at the Mission and how he’d been clean for 23 or 24 years,” said Finley. “I thought, if they could do that for him, they could help me.”

They have.

Finley, a resident of the City Mission’s Crabtree Kovacicek Veterans House, has been sober for 17 months, and recently became a resident assistant at the facility.

He was one of about a dozen people who turned out to celebrate the second anniversary of the Veterans House, which opened July 3, 2018.

“I do not know where I’d be if it wasn’t for the City Mission and the Veterans House,” said Finley. “I’m a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I’m nearly 1 1/2 years sober, and I’m feeling better than I ever have. And it’s all because of this facility right here.”

During a brief ceremony, veterans raised a new flag in front of the Veterans House.

A larger event had been planned, but was scaled back because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 22-bed residential facility serves veterans through a recovery program created to help them heal with the support of other veterans and veterans’ services.

Dean Gartland, President/CEO of the City Mission, said the opening of the Veterans House to serve the region’s homeless veterans is a “dream come true” that started in 2010, when the nonprofit noticed a number of veterans who sought help, but didn’t stay there for long.

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans reports there are 40,000 homeless veterans on any given night in the United States, and that veterans are 50% more likely than the general population to become homeless.

“Sometimes they’d pack up in the middle of the night and leave,” said Gartland. “We found veterans need their own place and their own facility because statistics and research indicates veterans do better together, supporting each other and helping each other.”

Currently, there are 14 residents at the Veterans Home.

In addition to providing a roof over their heads, the Veterans House staff helps veterans get the healthcare they need, find employment and get back on their feet.

While discussing the challenges and efforts to build the Veterans Home – which were temporarily waylaid by a devastating fire that badly damaged the City Mission in 2015 – Gartland became emotional.

“You served us, and now it’s our turn to serve you guys for what you did,” he said. “No matter what your situation is, the fact is where you’re at and the help that you’re getting, and your lives changing and becoming better is what is most important now. I do thank you for your service to our country.”

Finley said the camaraderie among the veterans is instrumental in recovery, and that the City Mission has changed the course of his life.

“You hear us, on any given day, ribbing on each other, but we’re also helping each other out,” said Finley. “I can say I owe my life to the City Mission. I’ve come a long way from where I was one year and a few months ago.”

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