Submitted Photo Patch of the Warren County United Veterans Council

The Warren County Veterans Council was created with the goal of helping veterans in need.

“The group was organized with the intent to raise monies to help any veteran in an emergency, once every three years,” according to Board Member Mark Woody. “Any honorably discharged veteran in Warren County, any branch of service, is automatically a member.”

The president of the council is the Warren County Veterans Affairs Director — Delores Stec. The Veterans Affairs office is located inside the Warren County Courthouse.

Stec has some discretionary funding, according to Woody. If a veteran needs help more than once in three years, the board can approve additional funding. “The general membership never knows who is being helped,” he said.

The board meets at 6 p.m. on the second Wednesday of every month. Meetings are held downstairs in the Eagles Club and in the Conewango Township offices in Starbrick.

The emergency fund is not the council’s only function.

“The Veterans Council holds a picnic every summer,”‘ Woody said.

The past year was an exception due to COVID-19.

The picnic features live music, food, and information, and is open to all veterans and everyone in their households.

“Ellwood National Forge kindly allows us to use the Wilder Field grounds” in Irvine, Woody said. “This year it will be held on July 23.

“No monies from the emergency fund are used to support this event,” he said. “It is funded through the donations made to the general fund from other individuals or businesses.”

There are various sources of funding for the emergency fund.

Rusted Nutz Garage is a regular contributor, running benefit events on a regular basis.

“The story of Rusted Nutz Garage in Garland is long and distinguished,” Woody said. “The owner, Scott Hollabaugh, is a retired US Army Specialist First Class veteran.”

“He decided in 2014 that he was going to give back to fellow veterans,” Woody said.

He decided to raise money through spaghetti dinners and to donate the proceeds to the emergency fund, according to Woody.

“They started holding these dinners in 2015,” he said. There have been 11 so far, with “3,500 to 4,000 meals” served.

The next will be held Monday, Feb. 28, at the Eagles Club. Tickets are available at Rusted Nutz, Pampered Pets, the Cabin in the Pines, and the Veterans Affairs Office.

“The cost for the events is absorbed by Scott and other donors,” Woody said. “Every penny they have raised goes into the Emergency Fund.”

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