Washington County Veterans Affairs will host a series of meet-and-greets around the county during the month of June, giving veterans a chance to come out, meet their County Veterans Service Officer (CVSO) and commissioners and enjoy coffee and a sweet treat.

“We’re reaching out to the smaller communities in Washington County hoping to meet some new or even old veterans that we already know,” said CVSO Sue Rich. “It’s been a year without seeing a lot of them, so we just want to bring everyone back together and see if there’s anything that they’re needing from us that we can help them out with.”

“A lot of veterans don’t even know we exist. We’ve been around a long time, but just getting people in to meet us can help with that. We want to know what we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong, what we could do better at,” Rich said.

Washington County Veterans Affairs is a county office that can provide county assistance to veterans and their family members, such as rent and utility payments, transportation and burial assistance, as well as helping veterans apply for federal benefits, such as service connected disability compensation, non-service connected pension, surviving spouse pension, aid and attendance and other services.

“There are lots of disabilities for all kinds of veterans. A lot of time they don’t think that they’ve had any injuries or illnesses, so the first thing we do is talk about their experience,” Rich said. “A lot of these veterans from Iowa, we’re proud people, will say ‘somebody’s worse off than I am’. But I want these veterans to know that they did what their country asked them, and we want to get them the benefits that they’re entitled to.”

Rich gave an example of a hypothetical Vietnam veteran who now suffers from heart disease, which is a presumptive illness for exposure to Agent Orange and therefore is entitled to federal funds to treat that disability.

Rich said the process for applying for federal assistance can be very complicated, so it’s beneficial for veterans to take advance of her office, where she is a nationally accredited CVSO and can serve as an advocate throughout the process.

Rich has been with Washington County Veterans for over 30 years, starting as a part-time secretary and working her way up through the office. The office used to focus primarily on county benefits, but then the state passed a law that required each county to have a nationally accredited CVSO. Rich much complete continuing education credits every year.

“I’m not a veteran myself, but man, these people are amazing,” Rich said about the veterans she works with. “When you get a veteran in your office and learn their story and work with a service connection for something that happened 40 years ago, it changes their life. They’ve been living on next to nothing and they get this service connection, and they get free healthcare, a steady income every month— it’s just amazing.”

Washington County Veterans Affairs is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday-Friday. The office is currently open by appointment. The office can be reached at 319-653-7768.

“Even if they don’t have any issues, it’s great just to meet veterans and make sure they know what we’re here,” Rich said.

The Washington County meet and greets will take place from 8:30-10 a.m. at the Ainsworth Fire Station on June 2, Brighton City Hall on June 3, Crawfordsville American Legion on June 4, Kalona first responder room on June 7, Riverside City Hall on June 8 and the Wellman Fire Department on June 9.