OAKLEY — One of the city’s newest social organizations has been making the rounds in Oakley and lending a hand when needed to make a difference in this small East County community. The Veterans of Oakley officially banded together this summer at Oakley’s July 5 Cityhood Celebration and since then has been out in force working on local projects and supporting veterans.
“When the city decided to put together its Veterans Memorial they had to ask an outside veterans group for help,” said president of the newly formed group, Randy “Smitty” Smith. “We have our own veterans, so there is no reason we can’t help when needed.”
Smith said that a lot of Oakley veterans already worked together through other organizations; it was just a matter of organizing their own group. The group gets the added benefit of being able to host meeting and activities right in the members’ hometown.
“That’s important for those of us who have a hard time getting around,” he said. “Plus, it offers more veterans helping veterans.”
Last week when the heavy storms threatened to flood the area, the Veterans of Oakley worked with the city to help fill bags of sand and were on hand to help hand out if needed. Then over the weekend the veterans worked with the Friends of Oakley to help sort and hand out 300 boxes of food and 837 toys to children for their annual holiday food distribution to Oakley’s families in need.
“There is no shortage of ways we can help in the community,” Smith said.
Earlier this fall the city worked out a deal where the Veterans of Oakley could share Oakley’s old firehouse on Second Street with the Oakley Seniors group. Both groups agree that this is a win-win for both organizations since the building is in need of a lot of work and they can join forces to get the job done, and forge a bond with other community groups.
“Our mission for the next year is the get the building up and running,” Smith said. “It needs a lot of work.”
So far both groups have found that the biggest challenge to completing the work on the building is finding a licensed contractor who will help remodel the building into a community center with a commercial kitchen and bring the rest of the building up to code pro-bono.
In the meantime, the group hosts a veterans breakfast every Monday morning at Black Bear Diner in Oakley at 9:30 a.m. and a dinner every Thursday at Second Street building at 5:30 p.m. Veterans from the area are welcome to attend both activities.
At this point there are no membership dues or fees for joining the Veterans of Oakley. Smith said that they are hoping to keep the organization free. The group is striving for a comfortable atmosphere where veterans can go and not feel obligated to attend every meeting.
Right now the group has about 20 to 30 regular attendees. Smith says he knows that there are a lot more veterans like himself — he served in the U.S. Army and the National Guard as a helicopter crew chief and tank commander from 1977 to 1997 — who live in Oakley and the surrounding unincorporated communities.
All veterans are welcome to attend one of the social events on Monday or Thursday and see what the group is all about.
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