REINBECK- While current Grundy County Supervisor Lucas Halverson was stationed overseas with the Army National Guard, he decided that he wanted to do something special to honor local veterans and say thank you. He brought the idea to Grundy County VA Director Janetta Miller-Buck, and they ran with it.
“It kind of grew into this outreach event with her office, and it went from buying donuts and coffee and sitting down with a couple veterans at the golf course or something to what I think will be a very great event to honor veterans rightfully,” Halverson said.
Miller-Buck recounted her own experiences attending local town festivals as part of outreach efforts but added that she didn’t feel like she was getting the response she hoped for there. The luncheon, which will be held on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Reinbeck Memorial Building with live music from Unpolished Jams and four guest speakers, seemed worth trying, especially after the last year and a half in the post-COVID landscape.
“I think it’s good that we’re coming back with a bang with a big event. We have intentions of it being an annual event with maybe changing the location throughout the county as the years go on,” Miller-Buck said.
Both Halverson and Miller-Buck are hoping for a strong turnout (utilizing local talent and vendors) that will catalyze future events and help veterans learn about services they may be entitled to through the VA.
“The message that I’m sending out to all veterans in the county is that every veteran is unique, and their situation is unique, and how their service and VA benefits work together is absolutely an individual circumstance,” Miller-Buck said.
Speakers will include Halverson himself, his battalion commander from the National Guard, William Beyer of the Grundy County VA Commission and Tama County Veterans Services Officer/Iowa Commission of Veterans Affairs President Elizabeth Ledvina.
Between sending postcards out and displaying flyers around the county, Halverson and Miller-Buck have done their part to ensure that each of Grundy County’s 470 current veteran residents is aware of the event, and they hope to see a lot of them on Sunday. And it should be a harbinger of more things to come.
“No matter what, every year we are going to do something,” Halverson said. “One hope I had for an event like this is to hopefully encourage different generations of veterans to come out as well.”
