Three months ago, the Montgomery City and Wellsville VFW organizations teamed up to start an outreach program in which they meet with veterans in nursing homes in the Montgomery County area.

It’s called the Veterans Check In program in which members of the VFW Posts 4436 (Montgomery City) and 3056 (Wellsville) visit veterans on the second Tuesday of each month at nursing homes in Jonesburg, New Florence and Wellsville.

So far, the VFW groups are really enjoying their time with the veterans.

“We heard some amazing stories from the veterans, just amazing stories of their wartime,” VFW Post 3056 Commander Jerry Fischer said. “Two of them were kind of recluse. They kind of stayed in their room and didn’t know each other. The first meeting we had, they met each other and now they’re best friends and they watch out for each other. So it’s working out really well. It’s been amazing to visit with people.”

Fischer and VFW Post 4436 Commander Kayla Gastler have been visiting with veterans since late November. There are about 30 veterans who stay in nursing homes in the county. The visits start at Jonesburg, then New Florence and finally Wellsville.

“We just go sit with them,” Gastler said. “We try to encourage them to come down to the cafeteria and meet each other. Some of them have no clue that there are other veterans there. They may not get out of their room.”

Gastler said the VFW groups did some giving to the veterans during the holidays.

“We went around and asked all of the veterans what they wanted for Christmas and if they needed anything,” she said. “We brought the donations to them.”

Fischer said the VFW groups came up with the idea of having an outreach progran after he did a Veteran’s Day ceremony in November.

“I was a commander and Kayla’s people showed up,” Fischer said. “We did the ceremony for Jonesburg and they called us and asked us to do a ceremony. That’s how it started. We found out they had 10 veterans. Kayla and I got together and we decided that was the spot we needed to be. We went there and then we went to New Florence.”

Gastler said most of the veterans have no family contacts.

“There are several veterans who said they don’t have any family, so nobody comes and sees them,” she said. “I had a guy who told me he’s been in the nursing home for six years and he never had a visitor.” 

The VFW groups will make their next visits on Feb. 10. Fischer said he and Gastler would like to see more people from the organizations to visit the veterans.

“We had a couple of extras go with us at a time or two and meet the veterans,” he said. “They’re just lonely. The goal of the VFW is to do more for veterans than anybody. That was a spot that was kind of getting overlooked. Kayla and I have no problem visiting with them and shooting the breeze.”