Second Stand Down for HomelessVeterans Has Widespread Support

AARP of South Carolina and the Veterans Welcome Home & Resource Center are the leaders, backed by several organizations and dozens of volunteers, for the second Stand Down at the Beach for homeless veterans Friday at the Army Reserve Center in Myrtle Beach.

Dental examinations, legal assistance and haircuts are among the services available to military veterans. More than 40 businesses and a variety of federal, state and local entities are coming together for the event. Horry-Georgetown Technical College, for example, is providing the dental exams.

So many individuals have offered to volunteer that Kris Tourtellotte, director of the Little River center, anticipates the number of volunteers may equal or surpass the number of homeless veterans. “We’re going to have 200 people volunteering,” he says. At the first area stand-down a year ago, 152 veterans were served. He says volunteers should be prepared to determine where they should help. “We’re going to open at 8 a.m. and deal with it.”

Other key organizations include area chapters of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association, the Military Officers Association of America and Myrtle Beach Outpatient Clinic of the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. The latter has an ongoing program for homeless veterans in HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing.

Members of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association again will conduct intake interviews as part of the registration process. Tourtellotte says this year’s initial screening will be more rigorous than a year ago, to ensure that persons seeking assistance are qualified. Tourtellotte also anticipates that the stand down will identify candidates for the center’s Hutton House, a residence program for qualified veterans who are making the transition from military service to civilian life. Residents must be actively seeking employment or enrolled in training courses.

Doris Gleason of AARP South Carolina sought out Tourtellotte, widely known as “Turtle,” after she heard a comment at a Horry County Council meeting claiming there were no homeless veterans in Myrtle Beach.

“I knew better,” she says. Gleason and “Turtle” talked and she agreed to organize a stand down after Turtle told her he could find homeless veterans. Gleason notes overwhelming support from the community. “We get so much donated – it’s incredible.”

Offers to volunteer were still coming in Tuesday. “My phone rang early this morning,” Gleason said. She has gone to the same supporters as last year and has not changed anything in the organization because “we were very successful” for the first stand down.

She expects Friday’s event may serve as many as 200 veterans. Stand downs have been used to reach out to veterans for several years. An article on the AARP website says more than 200,000 veterans, including homeless veterans, were reached from 1994 through 2000.

“I have always had a passion for veterans – especially homeless veterans,” Gleason says. She feels organizing Stand Down at the Beach is a tribute to her late father, a Korean War veteran.

“She is an amazing lady,” Turtle says, noting expenses this year are still covered by the $5,000 AARP provided in 2014.

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Second Stand Down for HomelessVeterans Has Widespread Support."