(Memphis) Every home needs a room where people can sit and talk.
One local home for veterans in our community is missing that room.
Alpha Omega Veterans Services is asking for your help to make veterans’ lives a little more complete.
Having a place to live means so much.
“This place saved my life,” said Veteran Richard Roberson. “It did.”
“I didn`t have no place. I didn`t have nothing,” said William Skinner, who served 12 years in the Army.
But for veterans, having a place to be together makes life even better.
“Oh fellowship. There is nothing like it,” said Cordell Walker, the executive director of Alpha Omega Veterans Services.
At the veterans housing on Court Ave, 32 disabled and formerly homeless vets have a place to get together, but it’s not complete.
“This is the deep South and we need to keep the guys out of the heat,” said Jack Cox, who served in Vietnam.
They have a place where veterans can gather but it’s a building with no walls so it’s really only good on days that are not too hot or too cold.
“Some of the vets don`t come out because they don`t have any place to go,” said Skinner. “But if we had this break room set-up, that would be a God send.”
Alpha Omega Veterans Services says Hilton Worldwide donated $12,000 this past Veterans Day and it was enough to build the pavilion, but not enough to seal it-up so it can hold air-conditioning or heat.
The veterans are hoping donations can make that happen.
“Right now when we do Thanksgiving here everybody grabs a plate and they have to go back to their own unit and it would be nice for everybody to sit down and socialize,” said Cox.
He says it would be nice to sit down together and shoot the breeze.
If you would like to help Alpha Omega Veterans Services, go to www.aovs.org or call 901-726-5066 or aovs1@bellsouth.net.