March 28, 2024

Jasper County veterans plan to travel to Florida

Mission to help My Warriors Place organization

Six Jasper County veterans will be taking a mission trip to Ruskin, Fla. to assist My Warriors Place from Aug. 20 through 24. The goal of the trip is to help renovate a building so it can be used to house people who come to stay there.

According to the My Warriors Place website, the organization was created by Kelly Kowall whose son Corey fought and died for the United States in Afghanistan. She created My Warriors Place to try and give some healing to families just like hers.

My Warriors Place is not only for veterans and service members but also for other public safety personnel such as law enforcement officials and firefighters. This also includes Gold, Silver and Blue Star families.

How it came on the radar for the veterans in Jasper County was kind of unique. Jasper County Treasurer Doug Bishop said the veterans learned about it from a segment on the Mike Rowe show “Returning the Favor” featuring the organization.

“My pastor Steve Heerema, he’s a veteran, he saw the episode and he said ‘Hey I think this is something that you guys would be interested in. I really feel that God is calling us to go do something,’” Bishop said.

The trip will be two-fold as the veterans will travel south to spend time helping out Kowall by working on one of the buildings. The other purpose for the trip is to allow these veterans to experience My Warriors Place first-hand.

“We are going to head down there and spend a week working but we are gonna spend a little bit of time for them as well,” Bishop said. “I think the five gentleman that are going along could probably use a little bit of time to be around people that get it, as well.”

The work they will be doing will be on a two-room cottage which needs extensive renovations on the interior. Bishop said it needs to be restored on the first floor but has to be gutted first so other crews can come in and do the electrical work among other work.

“We are going to get right after it and our goal is to have everything gutted,” Bishop said. “Our goal and mission is to help them keep moving forward with this so anybody that needs it will have that opportunity.”

The work these veterans will be doing in Florida will help further what Kowall is trying to do for those families who are suffering or need healing. The Jasper County veterans will also come home with ideas that could be used back home.

“What our hope is, we come back and we have some seeds to plant around here ... If we have wounded warriors around here we think it would be a good opportunity for us to connect with some of those folks and say we have got a place for you to go if you just need a little bit of down time,” Bishop said.

Contact Dustin Teays at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or dteays@newtondailynews.com