Becker was graced with Kari Westby and her family whom are a military family. Kari was part of the Anoka Beyond the Yellow Ribbon when she wanted to have one here in her home town.“There are so many members of the military that live right here and they don’t know they have the resources they or their families need,” says Kari.
Kari is proud Becker is the fourth most utilized Yellow Ribbon network in the state. Other networks will call her up for resources and help when issues arise. The dedication and passion that she and her steering members possess are the proof in the pudding.
The network is made up of seven different areas and need to have different members from the community to operate and maintain them. The following are the seven areas: schools/education, elected officials, local businesses, faith-based organizations, veterans and civic organizations, public safety, medical and social services organizations.
Men and woman who serve in our military come home with little or no support to transition back into life at home. These networks are set up for them or their families to help them cope with all different situations that arise.“The biggest problem is most people don’t know what exactly it is that we do and offer to our service men and woman,” explains Kari. “If we have a service person that contacts us and we are unable to help them, we take it as far as state wide to elevate the issue with full support,” says Kari.
However easy and straight forward the Yellow Ribbon City may seem, it is still a long and hard process to get there, as the City of Big Lake is finding out. “I’m very excited for Big Lake to become a Yellow Ribbon City because we can reach out to each other,” says Kari.
This past December Mayor Raeanne Danielowski of Big Lake had their kick-off meeting with 60 people attending. In the long list of criteria of becoming a Yellow Ribbon City Mayor Danielowski has been on her game of lining up all the paperwork and getting the seven areas of their network in place.
“We have very dedicated members of our steering community and it is always growing with their passion,” says Mayor Danielowski, who is very dedicated and passionate herself regarding giving back to our service men and woman.“I know my community and we are a giving community to help where we can help and how ever we can,” she continues.
In preparations for the criteria, Police Chief Joel Scharf has had his officers do a de-escalation strategy for veterans of Minnesota in crisis training. Basically these officers get trained in how to talk and deal with veterans who may be suffering from PTSD. Over 300,000 solders suffer from PTSD and do not even report issues until 90 to 120 days after they come home. The network members Big Lake has set up are made up of many veterans or have serving family members.
Tim and Kathy Smith run a foundation called Corey’s Adventures Foundation that has been set up in memory of their son Corey. Tim and Kathy lost their son to PTSD. The foundation was started in 2013 and has been a part of the Becker network and also is a part of the Big Lake network.
The Smiths have helped the Yellow Ribbon community by clearing out a yard of a veteran that was in trouble with the city they lived in to helping a different veteran seek help in getting the right medical help with his cancer.
There are 23 lives lost every day to suicide due to PTSD. “It is more like 40 to 50 lives,” adds Tim. Tim and Kathy work full-time jobs as well as run the foundation with the help of their children Autumn and Travis. “We don’t have the extra time, we just do it,” says Tim.
The foundation’s goal is to help service members and their families deal with PTSD so no one will have to experience what their family has gone through. “They give everything to keep us safe over there so we don’t have to experience it here. People don’t understand the freedom they have because they were born with it. They have sacrificed everything for us and if people forget that we are in big trouble,” says Tim.
Tim and Kathy have housed many exchange students over the years. “We had one child from Mexico was living with us and she told our children that God had blessed them for being born in America. And even more woman are blessed for being born here for the freedoms they have that don’t exist in any other country,” says Kathy.
For more information about Corey’s Adventures Foundation or the work the Smiths have done, you can go to coreysadvenduresfoundation.org.
April is Military Child Appreciation month. Becker’s Beyond the Yellow Ribbon is celebrating our heroes and their heroes at home Saturday April 25 at the Becker Community Center.
If you know of someone who is having hard time dealing with PTSD or if it is a family member, feel free to contact either network for further help on the situation. Big Lake has a Facebook page set up Beyond the Yellow Ribbon as well as contacting members directly. Greg Green can be reached at tomcatvf41@yahoo.com and George Quinn at navvet1959@netzero.com.Becker can be contacted through their Facebook page as well and Kari is available by email kariannette318@gmail.com.
