For Veteran’s Awareness Month, the UW-Whitewater Veteran’s Services department helped the service members themselves become more aware of the resources available to them. 

The Nov. 7 Veteran’s Resource Fair held on the main floor of the University Center included information booths from the Career and Leadership Development department of the University Center and the Veterans Service Member Organization, along with a few off-campus resources, such as the Whitewater chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. 

“I have worked with veterans for a long time, and I really enjoy it because veterans possess a lot of skill they don’t recognize. Basically I like to help them translate those military experiences into something they can use in the civilian world, like into their jobs,” said Kathy Craney, Career Counselor for the Career and Leadership Development center.

For the CLD, the goal is to get veterans’ career, but for other organizations, like the Veterans Service Member Organization, helping Veterans has always meant doing the other things that most do not realize are important. 

“We’ve helped veterans move into their house before, and we’ve even gotten them gym memberships,” said VSO Vice President, Anotine Gray. “Of course, we’ve also helped with basic money issues and things like that.” 

Because of these things, the VSO does also relies heavily on fundraising.

“We have lots of opportunities for fundraising,” said Public Affair Officer, Tamara Hagen. “We’ve done a thing called ‘Sweat a Vet’, had silent auctions and held raffles so that we could raise money for things like the gym memberships.”

However, for both of these organizations the end goal is the same: simply to provide help for veterans to acclimate better to life at home.

“You don’t need to be a student or a member of the organization to receive help,” said VSO Public Affair Officer, Tamara Hagen. “We just try to help in any way, shape or form that we can.”