By Townhall Chicago News Staff
Veterans Path to Hope, a Crystal Lake-area nonprofit, marked Veterans Day this week by highlighting its work to prevent veteran and military suicide, Director of Veterans Outreach Jim Dolan said.
The organization was founded by Vietnam veteran Alan Belcher, who bought a 20-room motel in Hebron to house homeless veterans, according to Dolan. It now runs about 10 programs, including housing assistance, counseling, employment help, outdoor activities, online gaming for isolated rural veterans, a food pantry and a Veteran Community Action Team that delivers furniture and food to veterans in need.
“The one thing that animates everything we do is the mission to reduce veteran and military suicide because the numbers are disastrously high and are not coming down,” Dolan said in a radio interview on AM 560.
Dolan, who said he is not a veteran himself, described the organization’s work connecting veterans across different eras of service. He said post-9/11 veterans have expressed feelings similar to those Vietnam veterans described after returning home.
“Post 9/11 veterans felt the sting of betrayal that the Vietnam veterans felt when they come back,” Dolan said. “If we don’t get this right in the next 30 to 40 years, we’re going to have the same situation.”
Dolan said veterans from the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan eras recently visited Crystal Lake South High School to speak with students, whom he described as “attentive, respectful and engaged.”
More information on Veterans Path to Hope is available at veteranspathtohope.org. Veterans and family members in crisis can call or text 988 and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line.
