Parx Joins Stand Down Effort to Support Vets

For the last 20 plus years, hundreds of  homeless military veterans from the region gather for the Delaware Valley Stand Down event. 

Held every year on the first weekend after Labor Day, Stand Down is an annual effort to provide needed services and supports to “positively change the lives of the areas homeless veterans and their families,” organizers say.

This year, Parx Casino is the newest addition to long list of sponsors, which also includes Bucks County, Bristol Township,  the Philadelphia VA Regional Office and Medical Center, the Bucks County Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, the American Red Cross of Southeastern PA, Waste Management Corporation,  the  Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, the Disabled American Veterans; the Philadelphia Veterans Multi Service Center, numerous veterans service organizations, and hundreds of individual civilian and military volunteers from the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps,  Navy  and National Guard, officials say.

“We’re proud to announce that Parx Casino is teaming-up as a major Stand Down sponsor, Ed Speller, Stand Down’s  executive director, said. “Parx is a strong community supporter that is happy to work with us.  We also welcome any other  organizations who want to help support our needy veterans in this way.”

The term Stand Down is a military term that refers to a period of rest and re-supply for exhausted combat troops, with emphasis placed on friendship, hope, and pride in themselves, event officials explained.

The Bucks County Commissioners and the Bristol Township Council in 2010 extended an invite and  Stand Down relocated to its present site , adjacent to the Bucks County government office building located at 7321 New Falls Road, Levittown  (the former site of the Thiokol Chemical Company).

Initially known as Philadelphia  Stand Down and held for 16 years at several different locations in Philadelphia, 2014 marks the 5^th consecutive year the event will be held in Levittown.

With help from the military, local government and community groups, the three-day event is aided by dozens of volunteers.

“There should not be a veteran in the country who doesn’t have a home,” Bucks County Military Affairs Director Dan Fraley said during last years Stand Down ceremony.

Consisting of dozens of live-in tents, a large military field kitchen, two huge  “mess” (dining) tents, three shower tents, and a another dozen tents for medical personnel and service providers, Stand Down will be the weekend home of upwards of 400 individuals.

Throughout the Stand Down weekend, the homeless veterans and many of their families, will be housed and cared for in a drug-free, alcohol-free, and violence-free tent city. There, they will live with counselors and peers in an orderly military style setting, while scores of military and civilian volunteers provide them with shelter, food, , education, employment, and  , legal assistance, VA enrollment and benefits counseling, , medical care, showers, fresh clothing, comfort items, haircuts, and  entertainment, according to the event officials.

In the three days prior to the event, electrical wiring will be installed throughout the entire facility, as well as extensive above-ground piping and plumbing facilities for drinking, cooking, and shower water, and for “brown” water drainage. For security purposes, the entire area will then be enclosed with temporary metal fencing.

Jerry Jonas, who has most recently worked as a columnist for several Philadelphia newspapers, said his long-term goal is for homelessness among vets be eradicated so there is no longer be a need for the Stand Down encampment.

Stand Down 2014 happens September 5,6,7.

For more information including sponsorship and volunteer opportunities or much needed monetary donations, contact Delaware Valley Veterans Stand Down at 267-560-5011 or e-mail delvalstanddown@gmail.com. More information about the Delaware Valley Veterans Stand Down is available  online at www.philastanddown.org.

Related:

• Homeless Vets Get Help, Warm Meal in Bristol Twp.