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Pell City hosted a resource fair last Thursday for central Alabama veterans and service members along with their families. The St. Clair County Extension Office and Coordinator, LeeAnn Clark, organized this fair for those who have served in the military and are trying to readjust into a civilian lifestyle.

 

            Showing support for the fair was Lawrence (Larry) H. Ross, Major General (Ret.), USA. The Major General Ross worked at the Pentagon alongside Pell City’s, Gregory Jacobik, a veterans and military families advocate. 

 

“This represents at a local level exactly what we were working on at the Pentagon,” said Ross in regards to the resource fair. While working at the Pentagon, the Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, coined the term “sea of good will,” according to the major general. “This was recognition at the highest level that Americans of all stripes want to help our veterans, but they don’t know how.”

 

Ross offered the example of the military base stationed in Dothan, Alabama. He said that here veterans and service members were taken care of, but “outside there is less help for veterans locally.”

 

            “I’m here to say how fantastic it is that this community is doing things like this fair to bring Veterans in and help. They need local help.” Ross said that the federal government cannot fund all support for these men and women, but they are self- sufficiently trained and hardworking. So all they need is for local communities to reach out and help.

 

“It’s not a hand out. It’s help,” said Ross. He said corporations, nonprofit organizations, veteran services, education, public health and other parts of the community all have a part to play in this effort. Ross also talked about how exiting a military lifestyle and coming back into a civilian community is very strange.

 

            He said that this transition could often lead to homelessness, depression and suicide. He said these things could be lessened if communities will reach out. Some examples he gave were supplying a veteran with a job or aiding a service member with the finances to further education. “This helps to save lives,” said the major general.