A fundraiser for the Dodge House, a Rutland transitional housing home for veterans, will be held at the Elks Club on Pleasant Street in Rutland Friday, November 6-9 PM. Tickets can be purchased here.

By Guy Page

Today, November, 11, the 108th year after the signing of the armistice that ended the First World War, Vermonters pause to thank our living veterans for their service, sacrifice and dedication. On Chronicle Conversations today, I will be talking with the son of a Vietnam veteran who is the namesake for the Dodge House, a transitional living home for veterans.

Mike Dodge was one of the five founders of the first chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America, located in Rutland. “These guys were coming back with PTSD, which was not recognized until the 1980’s,” his son J.T. Dodge told VDC today. “My father committed suicide in 1986, five years after holding the shovel representing Vermont at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial groundbreaking in Washington D.C. “

Dodge will be the keynote speaker at the Dodge House fundraiser at the Elks Club on Pleasant Street in Rutland Friday, November 6-9 PM. Tickets can be purchased here.

Dodge was 13 when his dad died. “What I know about my father I have learned through his friends, and through this house. My father died before the house came to fruition. But it was named after him.”

“They wanted to get out from underneath the government, because government wasn’t pulling its weight” – not really helping people they said they were helping. The same thing is happening now with the current homeless crisis, where veterans are part of “the broader homelessness diaspora,” Grant said.

The House offers both men’s and women’s beds. “We keep a pantry of food. When a veteran comes back, we’ll try to help. If you need boots, we’ve been known to offer boots in need. Put jackets on people.”