By JEFF STITT
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The coronavirus pandemic has caused some changes to the way White Oak Vet Center provides counseling services to the region’s heroes who served or are actively serving in the U.S. military.
While the staff hasn’t stopped offering services to veterans, active-duty troops and families of veterans and troops, the majority of services from White Oak Vet Center, which is in Oak Park Mall on Lincoln Way, have had to be provided via Zoom since spring 2020.
But, a White Oak Vet Center Veteran Appreciation Picnic at Allegheny County’s White Oak Park Friday provided a much needed chance for veterans and their families, Vet Center staff and members of The Wounded Warrior Project to get together and celebrate camaraderie.
A branch of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Vet Centers are community-based counseling centers that provide a wide range of social and psychological services, including professional readjustment counseling to eligible veterans, active-duty service members, including National Guard and Reserve components, and their families. Readjustment counseling is offered to make a successful transition from military to civilian life or after a traumatic event experienced in the military.
In White Oak and at other Vet Centers, individual, group, marriage and family counseling is offered in addition to referral and connection to other VA or community benefits and services.
Vet Centers provide readjustment counseling and outreach services to all veterans who served in any combat zone. Vet center counselors and outreach staff, many of whom are veteran themselves, are experienced and prepared to discuss the tragedies of war, loss, grief and transition after trauma.
The picnic is an annual event, but it had to be nixed last year as a result of the pandemic.
“It’s good to be back,” said Nancy Mizak, a veteran and the White Oak Vet Center’s director. “This is the first time that we’ve met anybody face to face since we were all quarantined and we were all shut in.
“We were able to put together a mitigation plan and I give full credit to our partners, Wounded Warriors, who actually got with Mission BBQ, who supports vets and they funded all the meals.”
To remain vigilant about the delta variant of COVID-19, picnic tables were spaced apart to promote social distancing, hand sanitizer was offered and Mission Barbecue, which is veteran-owned, pre-packed meals in beautiful, sturdy cardboard take-out containers.
“I think we’re all just really excited about getting together,” Mizak said.
Mizak said the pandemic has presented some challenges, but her team at the vet center has been working hard to meet those challenges.
“I was able to get my staff fully virtual by April of last year so we could do face to face but it’s all virtual,” Mizak said. “Right now, our front door is open, but we stop people in the lobby and help them where they’re at or set them up for virtual.”
Mizak said vet center staff and the veterans that utilize services there also recently got some good news. As a result of many pandemic orders about outdoor gatherings being loosened or dropped earlier this summer, the center is now able to hold regular group therapy and talk sessions in a physically-distanced, outdoor setting at White Oak Park.
“We all just keep our distance. We all keep six feet away from each other,” she said. “The guys are really appreciative of it. We’re lucky White Oak Park is a gem.”
Becca Marshall, an outreach specialist with Wounded Warrior Project, said her team was glad to be at the event Friday and that the organization was happy to fund the picnic.
“Oh, it feels so good to connect with our veterans and warriors again,” she said. “It’s been a very long, arduous process as far as doing everything virtual. We’ve adapted, but it’s nice to just connect, serve and empower — just like our motto — and to reconnect with the vet centers as well.
“We’re just like one big family.”
She said veterans were excited to be together.
“I can’t tell you how many ‘Thank you’s’ I’ve gotten,” Marshall said.
“There’s just such excitement to finally do the social thing instead of everybody doing Facetime or on the computer with the Zoom meetings,” Mizak said.
Wounded Warrior Project provides a variety of veteran programs and services and serves service members who incurred a physical or mental injury, illness, or wound while serving in the military on or after September 11, 2001. To learn more, go to www.woundedwarriorproject.org.
George Powell, who served in the U.S. Marines for eight years, including in Fallujah, Iraq, said he was grateful for the chance to attend the picnic and other events sponsored by Wounded Warrior Project.
“These are, a lot of the time, the only events I get out to at all,” he said of Wounded Warrior Project events.
Powell said at its events, Wounded Warrior Project make sure to consider the needs of and make accommodations for veterans who may struggle physically as a result of an injury or injuries inflicted during or as a result of their service and those who have conditions like PTSD.
“The Wounded Warrior Project events are the things that I go to because there are other veterans here and a lot of them know mentally what it’s like,” he said.
“It’s a camaraderie,” Marshall said.
“You’re with a group of people that — even the spouses — they know what you’ve been through,” Powell said. “It’s a good difference between being out in the civilian world and going to different event.
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