Minnesota Veteran - August Edition

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Minneapolis Veterans Home Volunteers

Volunteers

MINNEAPOLIS, Jul 30, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- UnitedHealthcare employees teamed up with Rebuilding Together Twin Cities today to make several renovations at the Minnesota Veterans Home - Minneapolis.

Minnesota Veterans Home - Minneapolis is an organization dedicated to providing Minnesota’s Veterans and their families with high-quality and dignified health care in a nurturing and engaging environment. The Home is located on a 53-acre wooded campus that contains 291 skilled nursing beds and 50 domiciliary beds in private and semiprivate rooms.

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New Measures to Honor our Veterans

Dayton

As another legislation session comes to a close, several new measures to honor our Veterans have been achieved.  On July 16, Governor Dayton invited the public to a ceremonial signing of a new bill passed in the last session to fund construction of a Hmong-Lao Veterans Memorial in the Capitol Area. The memorial will honor all Hmong-Lao Veterans of the war in Laos who were allied with the American forces during the Vietnam War. State leaders designed $450,000 to complete the design and construction of the new memorial. This appropriation is only available after at least $90,000 has been committed to the project from non-state sources.

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Desk of the Commissioner - August

Commissioner Shellito

For this month’s article I have decided to take a more serious tone as to the role we all played in caring for our Veterans. First of all, I congratulate the Veterans Service Organizations for successful conferences and their continuing work in caring for Veterans. In some cases, the attendance was lighter than desired, but the leadership ensured the organization continued going in the right direction.

I am extremely proud to play a small part in making Minnesota a better place for all Veterans.  And, as always, I am especially grateful to the auxiliaries for their work.  I have always considered them to be the rock upon which many organizations are built.

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Pheasants Forever Land Dedication

Pheasants Forever

More than 600 acres in Minnesota’s Stearns and Wright counties have been permanently conserved in honor of Minnesota’s military Veterans. The Veterans State Wildlife Management Area is now open to public hunting and outdoor recreation. Located south of Clearwater, the project was created in part by funding from Minnesota’s Outdoor Heritage Fund (created by the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment) and Pheasants Forever’s Build a Wildlife Area program.

The 604-acre Veterans State Wildlife Management Area stands out as a large, permanently protected area of wildlife habitat near the Twin Cities metro region and will serve as a memorial to the sacrifices made by military servicemen and women. The area, now managed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, will be open to public hunting and outdoor recreation in perpetuity.

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Free Hotel Accommodations

On July 8 Hilton Hotels in Minnesota joined three other states in a new program that provides accommodations to Veterans searching for jobs outside of their residential area. Hilton Worldwide and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) have partnered with the state of Minnesota to assist military Veterans with finding fulfilling jobs. The HHonors Military program was designed to give back to military service personnel through providing HHonors points to eligible transitioning service members, Veterans, and military spouses. By becoming a HHonors Military member, Veterans will receive a 100,000 point donation to their account. These points can be redeemed to support travel expenses related to job-search activities.

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Michelle Obama Writes About Ending Veteran Homelessness

Michelle Obama

July 30, 2014

Michelle Obama

WASHINGTON — At the beginning of June, 85 mayors, governors and county officials from across the country – and across the political spectrum – signed on to the Mayors Challenge to End Veterans Homelessness. Today, we’re announcing that in the two months since then, 97 more state and local leaders have signed on – meaning that a total of 182 local leaders have pledged to end homelessness among the Veterans in their communities by the end of 2015.

I know that might sound like a pipe dream. After all, Veteran homelessness is a problem we’ve faced for decades – in fact, almost 90 percent of all homeless Veterans served prior to 9/11. And as a country, we’ve never been able to rally the resources and the public will to get all of our Veterans off the streets and into stable housing.

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