PHOENIX — Ahead of Veterans Day, veterans in our community are still finding ways to serve.
At Spaces of Opportunity, a community garden in south Phoenix, help was needed to build a new river bed in their kids' zone.
“We’re doing a first here for the Phoenix Platoon, laying some concrete and beautifying the spaces of opportunity," platoon leader Gary Streeter said.
The Phoenix Platoon is one arm of the national organization The Mission Continues, which helps veterans connect with community service projects near where they live.
It’s often hard work, but veterans welcome a challenge. Streeter says projects like this help the veterans in the Phoenix Platoon know they’re still making a difference.
“A lot of veterans struggle when they get out because they’re not surrounded by people in uniform anymore, there’s not a common mission, like today we’re doing this," Streeter said.
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Nate Williams is one of their volunteers and left the military in 2016.
“As a marine, we don’t show the struggles," Williams said. "But it’s not the easiest time.”
Williams says that whether it’s 'The Mission Continues' or another organization, he encourages all veterans to become part of a community when they transition out of the military.
“It’s a big world," Williams said. "You’re leaving one big world, and you’re coming into one that you thought was simple and small but it’s so much bigger than you think.”
Working on a project together here leads to having a support system when the job is done.
“It’s super gratifying to me that people are connecting here, making new friends, and new connections, is what today is all about for us," Streeter said.
Their work goes beyond Veterans Day. All month long 'The Mission Continues' platoons across the country are working on over sixty projects to help communities across America.
