“Operation Golden Hawk” to help veterans in need on Saturday in Mason City

MASON CITY — “Operation Golden Hawk” is an event taking place this weekend in Mason City to help veterans and their families dealing with a multitude of issues.

The organization’s Peter Bieber and Angelyn Lander say that there will be several agencies at the “Veteran Stand Down” event addressing how veterans can get assistance in dealing with a variety of insecurities.   She says, “We focus primarily on six different areas, so we’ll have people there for housing, we’ll have people there for physical health and for mental health. Anyone who is struggling with substance abuse or alcoholism, we will have providers there who they can talk to and who will help.” He says, “Food insecurity,  clothing insecurity, financial and employment insecurity, so chances are if a veteran is struggling in one area, they are often times struggling in more than one area.”

Bieber says they focus on housing insecurity rather than strictly homeless veterans because of veterans who struggle with things like rent or house payments.  “We never know who is maybe one or two housing payments or rent payments away from losing their housing, so we try to work with organizations that can help veterans maintain their housing as well. It’s always going to be easier to keep veterans in their current living situation, so that way they don’t have to go through the shame and the trauma of losing their housing. We want to try to keep them where they are at. We’ve got some great organizations that we work with that help keep veterans in their location as well as their families.”

The event takes place at the North Iowa Events Center on Saturday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

For more information about the event you can click on this link. Watch the video below to hear more from Bieber and Lander