The Flint Hills Veterans Coalition continues to encourage people to join their mission.
The FHVC purpose is to promote patriotism throughout the community. They host veteran’s day events in Manhattan, as well as taking part in several other outreach programs. Chuck Sexton, FHVC president, talks more about their cause.
“Just helping as many vets as we can, because it’s all about veterans and veteran related causes, as well as patriotism in the Flint Hills,” Sexton says. “That’s what we were established to execute and that’s what we were established to do.”
The largest event of the year for the FHVC is the Veteran’s Day Parade, which has a theme centered around Vietnam Era Veterans this year. Janet Nichols, past president, says while many people just see them at the parade, they do so much more than that year round.
“A scholarship program with K-State, Manhattan Christian, and MATC for veterans that we are really proud of. We also do some outreach with Habitat for Humanity’s Veteran Build program,” Nichols adds.
Melody Sexton, Head of Publicity, tells KMAN they are also kicking off a senior living outreach program this year as well.
“The first year of our coronavirus we had our parade but we live streamed not only the parade, but the indoor ceremony, and we started live streaming our meetings and we discovered that our senior veterans that can’t make it out really enjoyed watching all of that.”
She adds that due to their engagement, they plan to once again provide live streams to their meetings this year. She says it’s about more than that though, they want to get more connected.
“We’re also going to get into those senior living communities and see if we can’t do things, whether it’s bingo or whatever, we will see what they want, maybe a letter writing campaign,” Melody Sexton says.
She adds that during March they are also kicking off their Flint Hills Veterans March Initiative.
“It’s a combination of us getting back together in March to resume our meetings and our activities with a focus on our volunteer in the community efforts.”
Sexton adds that the other half of that initiative is the direct mail fundraiser.
“We’re going to email and direct mail to outline to the community these great things that we’re doing, and things that we want to continue and things that we want to start doing.”
It’s not only the “March Initiative”, but March also brings a partnership with the Mahnattan Hyvee. In the month of March, Hyvee will be supporting the local non-profit. Nichols shares more.
“Hyvee has a great fundraiser for non-profits where you can buy their shopping bag, their Hyvee shopping bag, and for the month of March, the Flint Hills Veterans Coalition is the beneficiary of those funds at our Hyvee.”
Melody Sexton says it is truly a special opportunity.
“We didn’t approach them for this or anything, they selected us to be the local non-profit that receives a dollar, we get a whole dollar per bag, and the bags aren’t that expensive, I think they are $2.95.”
If you are interested in joining the Flint Hills Veterans Coalition, they begin their monthly meetings again in March.
The first meeting of each month takes place on the second Tuesday beginning at 10 AM at St.Thomas Moore Church. The newly added second meeting of each month will take place on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6 PM and is currently set to take place at the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.
Nichols says joining the FHVC is a great way to build relationships with military members or military spouses.
“It is a group of doers, and at also at the same time there is a big social aspect to what we do because we all enjoy getting together and doing things. It’s a fun group, you all should come out.”
To learn more about the coalition, visit flinthillsveterans.org.
The FHVC also hosts the “Vets on the Net” podcast, talking with veterans from all branches and sharing stories, experiences, and laughs.
The podcast can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts.
