November 2026
 Join MVH at Grand Rapids on 11/7 for the 'Veterans Day 5'
Friends, family, and community will convene at MVH at Grand Rapids on Saturday morning, November 7th, for the Home's annual 'Veterans Day 5' event. The morning includes a 0.5-mile Remembrance Walk, a 5k, and a 5-mile run, and concludes with a community pancake breakfast. Check out photos from last year, here.
It's an event for people of all ages and abilities, to come together and celebrate service. We hope you can join us in celebrating service with our Veterans!
Register at the link below!
 Happy Veterans Day, from MVH
November is always special at MVH. We're blessed - and grateful - to serve and honor Veterans every day of the year. That said, the Veterans Day season remains a special one. It's worth noting that some forty-five or so years ago, 18% of U.S. adults were Veterans. Today, somewhere around just 6% of U.S. adults are Veterans. That can sometimes mean that less and less of our population is connected to the service and sacrifices of those who've served our nation. This Veterans Day, maybe you can consider teaching a young person, or two, about the importance of service to our nation - and what those who've gone before us have done on our behalf. if you need any assistance, check out the 'Veterans Day Teachers Resource Guide' put together by the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs. Perhaps share it with educators in your life, too.
However you honor our Veterans, we encourage you to do something good for a Veteran in your life. After all, they did something good for you.
Happy Veterans Day, from all of us at MVH.
 LTC Ron Pickens Lane
He was known as "the Mayor" at MVH at Chesterfield Twp. Indeed, Ron always had a pulse on what was going on. He was a man of the people. Ron was a special man to many. The late Ron Pickens started his journey with MVH as a member of the MVH D.J. Jacobetti in Marquette, before a State Veterans Home existed in southeast Michigan. When MVH at Chesterfield Twp. opened its doors in 2021, Ron transferred from the Jacobetti to the new home, to be closer to where he made his home, prior to needing MVH care. Ron passed earlier this summer, yet left a legacy. Members of MVH at Chesterfield Twp. wanted to solidify that legacy for their late friend, and purchased the street sign, worked with the Home's administrator, and in October had a small celebration naming one of the streets on the Home's beautiful campus in his namesake: LTC Ron Pickens Lane.
Father. Grandfather. Son. Soldier. Officer. Purple Heart recipient. Veteran. Friend. A man of faith. The late Ron Pickens was many things to many people. Here, we remember him, and honor his legacy.
 Celebrating Sweetest Day at MVH at Chesterfield Twp.
It's said that the first 'Sweetest Day' was held in 1921. It's not observed everywhere, though perhaps it should be. While some contend it was a holiday created for commercial interests, there are worse things than a day focused on sharing gratitude and kindness with the person you hold dear. Veterans at MVH at Chesterfield Twp. celebrated Sweetest Day with a wonderful lunch at Olive Garden, all with their wonderful better halves.
We're grateful to provide the care and quality of life Veterans earned, and deserve.
 'Topping' ceremony held at Jacobetti construction site
The 'topping' ceremonial tradition dates back to ancient Scandinavia, where a tree or leafy branch was placed atop the high point of a new structure to honor the land, the forest, and to bring good fortune to the structure and people who would reside within it.
In October, a small topping ceremony was held at the new Jacobetti, when the Jake's last structural beam was installed. A symbolic gesture, signifying the transition from the structural phase of construction, while simultaneously wishing many blessings upon the Veterans, staff, volunteers, and community who will walk the halls, reside in the rooms, and embrace this Jacobetti for many, many years to come.
The Jake has been topped!
 The Autumn Artisans of MVH at Grand Rapids
We've got some pretty creative people. Indeed, the pumpkin-decorating contest at MVH at Grand Rapids had Veteran members and staff pulling out the best of their artistic skills - and delivering! There were ghost pumpkins and dolly pumpkins (Parton), and ice cream pumpkins, and turkey pumpkins, and more, and certainly all enjoyed the art work. Quality of life matters in long-term care, and we're proud to deliver it for Veterans at MVH at Grand Rapids!
 Senators King (ME), Banks (IN) introduce legislation supporting long-term care options for highly service-connected disabled Veterans
High-cost medications continue to impact many of the 179 State Veterans Homes across the nation - and highly service-connected disabled Veterans needing nursing home level care. Senators Angus King (ME) and Jim Banks (IN) recognized this, and recently joined together to introduce the Providing Veterans Essential Medications Act, S. 5497, in the U.S. Senate.
The legislation seeks to create a 'carve out' for exorbitantly high-cost medications needed by Veterans in State Veterans Homes, where the cost of medications takes up much of, all, or more than the entirety of the per diem provided by the VA - a per diem intended to be a 'full cost of care' rate to care for higher service-connected disabled Veterans. This issue is increasing in frequency across the nation, and is resulting in significant impacts to State Veterans Home budgets. This issue forces some State Veterans Homes to deny admission to higher service-connected disabled Veterans based on cost, and is thus limiting those higher service-connected disabled veterans' choices in care. Notably, in VA Community Living Centers and VA-contracted community nursing homes these medications are covered, just not in State Veterans Homes: the challenge and issue this bill seeks to address.
 MVH: Keeping the promise to Michigan Veterans for 140 years
A note from MVH Director of Development & Strategic Engagement, Ryan Engle:
Since the inception of this experiment in American democracy, young people have raised their right hand and taken an oath. Then, in times of peace and conflict, they go where our nation sends them. Some spend their career in service. More often, they serve for a term or two, and then embark upon a life outside of uniform. They are a small fraction of us: America’s Veterans. To all Veterans this Veterans Day, and every day: thank you for your service. We are, indeed, a grateful nation.
There’s a social contract in such service, too: a promise. They go where our nation’s leaders send them. Europe. The Pacific. Korea. Vietnam. Iraq. Afghanistan. Elsewhere. They don’t debate justification or directive. That’s for policy makers. They just go. And when they return – if they return – and hang up their uniform for the final time, our nation provides them an opportunity to thrive, and the resources they require. That’s the social contract: they were there for us, and for our nation. We – society – are there for them, especially when they need it the most. A promise.
A period of life when Veterans may need their nation the most comes long after service. Often in the later years of their lives, Veterans, like many Americans, experience declines that require nursing home care. When that occurs, Michigan Veteran Homes (MVH) is there for them, and has been for more than a century: a small part in keeping the promise. I’ve been blessed this past decade to serve Veterans at MVH, our state’s long-term skilled nursing facilities for Veterans in Grand Rapids, Marquette, and Chesterfield Township. Serving alongside the remarkable people caring for such remarkable people at our Veterans Homes is nothing short of inspiring. Indeed, our State is fortunate to have such people and such Homes – some of the top nursing homes in the State of Michigan – providing exceptional care to Veterans, in environments worthy of their service. Staff, volunteers, and community partners, all keeping the promise to our Veterans.
140 years ago, Michiganders believed these Homes were worth investing in, opening the doors in Grand Rapids to care for Veterans of the Civil War. Nearly a century later, in 1981, the doors opened on the Jacobetti in Marquette. Then forty years after that, the first Veteran was admitted to the newly constructed MVH at Chesterfield Twp., in Macomb County. Three Homes, providing compassionate care when Veterans need it the most. Infrastructure, standards of care, and much more has changed in more than a century of fulfilling this promise. Our stalwart commitment to exceptionally serving those who’ve served us, however, remains unchanged, and is as strong today as it surely was 140 years ago.
At MVH, it’s about more than an American flag t-shirt or a ‘Support our Veterans’ bumper sticker. It is, instead, patriotism in real-life application: being there for Veterans when they need it the most. It’s helping the Veteran and family through the transition to long-term care. It’s giving the Veteran a voice in their care and self-determination. It’s providing excellent care, certainly, but also exceptional quality of life, often in the final and sometimes immensely challenging months and years of life. It’s holding a Veteran’s hand in the final moments. It’s the smile on a Veteran’s wrinkled face when you ask about their visit with their grandkids. It’s the little things that are the big things. It’s compassionate care centered around the individual Veteran. It’s happening at MVH, and it’s the experience in care Veterans earned, and deserve. At MVH, we’re keeping the promise to Veterans.
Sixteen years ago, I had the privilege of leading and serving alongside approximately 100 U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers in day-to-day combat through the largest offensive of the war in Afghanistan. Two of those Marines never made it home, killed in separate firefights, thousands of miles from their homes. Our Afghan interpreter was killed in yet another firefight. Five more Marines were wounded in IED strikes. Yet another would lose the battle after the battle, to the burdens he brought home. Kurt Vonnegut might say, ‘so it goes.’ These young men and the ninety or so others all went where their nation sent them, with courage, and without hesitation. When I reflect on this group of warriors – all of them, and all others who’ve served – I consider how we might, collectively, continue to fulfill our promise to Veterans. The best I’ve been able to come up with thus far, is to individually strive to live a life and to make an impact worthy of such service and sacrifice: a life and impact that those no longer with us might look down upon proudly, knowing that those they left behind are using the time they have to make a positive impact. That those still here, are keeping the promise. As a Veteran and team member at MVH, I’m proud that MVH is playing a small part in fulfilling that promise. We’re delivering an experience in care that I’m proud of, and every Veteran and Michigander can be proud of, too.
This Veterans Day, take time to consider how you might do your small part in continuing to fulfill that promise to America’s Veterans. Maybe you already do. If not, there’s opportunity to do so at MVH. There’s opportunity elsewhere, too, in every community across the State, to be there for those who’ve worn the sacred fabric of this nation. In the big moments, and the little ones. At MVH, in partnership with our communities, we’re keeping the promise, for 140 years and counting. This Veterans Day and forward, I hope you, too, find your way of keeping the promise to those who’ve served us. Happy Veterans Day. -Ryan Engle
Ryan Engle serves as the Director of Development & Strategic Engagement for MVH. A Marine Corps Veteran and former infantry officer, he is a combat Veteran of the largest offensive of the war in Afghanistan, and serves as the current President of the National Association of State Veterans Homes.
 |
|
Around the nation at State Veterans Homes
|
Donations to Michigan Veteran Homes are tax-deductible under 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Michigan Veteran Homes are making a difference in the lives of Michigan veterans and their loved ones. Join us.
Want to learn more about participating in the representative democracy our veterans stood to protect? Visit the Michigan Voter Information Center.
|
