One of the folks who wrote us after the Northwest Herald piece was a fellow named Scott who lives in our area and does some wonderful volunteer work with one of our local churches. Today he was kind enough to invite me to help him find a Special Forces Vet who showed up in his church a while back asking “for a can of beans”. Evidently he hadn’t eaten in days.
Scott had an idea about where this Vet was staying and after about 20 minutes of following a couple foot paths through some trees behind a factory, we found his campsite. The Vet named Steve is living in the woods in our town in a tent. Right under our noses we have a veteran who is living in the woods and needs to ride his bike to a church in Crystal Lake to ask for a can of beans. Gosh, there must be more we can do for these patriots of ours.
How do we find these people and identify their needs and help fill them? They have risked their lives for us and we let them sleep in the woods and beg for beans. We must find a way to help these souls.
Scott and his wife had put together a “care package” for him with a cooler, water and food. We found his tent, but Steve was nowhere to be found. Scott said that he would keep coming back until he gets hold of Steve. We have to find a way to help these people even if it’s one at a time. maybe that is the only way to do it; one veteran at a time. Don’t be afraid to reach out to these young men and women. They certainly stuck it out there for us and still do every day!