The North Township Trustee’s Office showed its veteran constituents appreciation Tuesday afternoon through food and merriment.
This year, the office’s Third Annual Vets & Friends Barbecue gave out a little something extra to attendees, too: a 25-pound box of food courtesy of the Food Bank of NWI. The township put together 50 of them, so anyone who needed one didn’t walk out empty-handed, Trustee Adrian A. Santos said.
“I’ve been doing this since I got into office,” he said. “We have other ways of engaging our vet community – we do morning socials, and we have the Veterans’ Roundtable — but what’s better than hamburgers and hot dogs?”
Santos said the barbecue is also a good time to talk with vets about their concerns and get them the resources they need.
The biggest concern among older veterans is their VA benefits and getting rides to and from the various clinics, but there’s also another, deeper concern of who’s going to continue the work when the older vets can no longer do it.
Rich Tokarz, an Army veteran from Crown Point who runs a not-for-profit called Heroes Helping Heroes, has an idea of why there’s such a disconnect, and it’s got nothing to do with not wanting to help. It’s having the time to make a difference.
“For those of us who’re GenX, the hurdle in front of us is having the time to get involved,” he said. “We had extremely motivated volunteers, then COVID hit, and people reset their lives accordingly. The older vets have the time but not the stamina, and the concern there is that if there’s not someone to take over, they lose their legacy and the work just falls by the wayside.”
Xavier Garcia, a younger Army combat medic from St. John Township, contributes his time gladly, even though he and his wife both work. There just has to be an end goal to what he’s doing.
“I did a tour in Iraq, and what I learned from them is you have to be willing to share your experiences because if a vet’s not healthy, they’re going to be selfish,” Garcia said.
“If I’m doing something, I want to be giving back and innovating programs, and if there’s not an opportunity for that, I look for the next thing.”
The barbecue was sponsored by the trustee’s office and paid for through its not-for-profit Wicker Park Memorial Fund, Special Events Director Kelly Bridges said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.