Local Veterans Meet In Hopes of Uniting All Vets

A group of about 15 people representing various veteran support groups recently gathered at the Military Community Resource Center in Patchogue.

“The goal of the meeting is to form a Suffolk county veterans alliance so that all of the organizations in Suffolk that are veteran specific can intermingle,” Sharon Gingola, the organizations executive director said. "(We want) to make sure that all of the veterans in Suffolk county know what benefits they have available, how they can get them, who can help them with that and so forth.”

The groups represented at the meeting included the local VFW, AMVETS, American Legion and a representative from the office of New York senate member Lee Zeldin.

The center, which has been on 38 Oak Street since May, provides services such as family support case management, help for veterans with Post Traumatic stress disorder and has expectations to host AA meetings specifically for vets.

“It took us about a year to get all the paperwork together and to get the organization license and get the right people to be here,” Gingola said. “Then we opened the building and built the yoga room, so it’s been in the process for about a year and a half.”

The center also hosts yoga classes three times a week as a way to raise funds.