FORKS – Because veterans often won’t ask for help, a Veterans Stand Down on May 3 will take help to the vets. The event at the Forks Elks Lodge, 941 Merchants Road, will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
It will extend the successful Stand Downs that have been held at the Clallam County Fairgrounds each October since 2004.
“The West End [of Clallam County] is a great little community,” John Braasch said Wednesday, “but they’re out there on their own.”
Braasch, veterans employment representative at the Employment Security Department in Port Angeles, is organizing the Stand Down as president of the Voices for Veterans group that supports homeless vets.
“Stand down” is military parlance for a brief respite from front-line duty.
Braasch estimates that as many as 150 homeless veterans live in the West End.
“There are pockets of veterans who live in a sort of disenfranchisement,” he said.
“Most of those guys are very good at not being seen or found. They won’t come to us. We’ve got to come to them.”
