Girls veterans invited to share their tales

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Brandy Repair has a lot of tales about her time within the Marine Corps: boot camp, fight coaching, promotions, courting a civilian whereas within the service, preparing for the Marine Corps ball, and being an Iron Lady are only a few.

An occasion arising is an opportunity for her to share these tales with others who can relate to them.

June 23 is the Girls Veterans Day Dinner and Celebration. The occasion is sponsored by IowaWORKS Cedar Rapids, the Linn County VA, and the Iowa Metropolis VA Well being Care System.

Tonya Goodburn is a ladies’s well being social employee on the Iowa Metropolis VA Well being Care System. She stated the occasion will probably be “a time for veterans and ladies reservists and Nationwide Guard—for them to have the ability to come collectively and speak about their tales and their ‘whys’ of why they joined the army.”

Dakota Andrew is a Disabled Veteran Outreach Program Specialist at IowaWORKS. “Girls veterans is among the fastest-growing demographics. I consider it might need been in a VA stat that got here out that there are 18,000 ladies veterans in Iowa. So the demographic’s there.”

Repair stated that whereas she served she was “handled no totally different” than her male counterparts. Nevertheless, she has heard of girls veterans receiving totally different remedy from civilians.

“Not only for myself, however I communicate for a number of—I’ve bought a few feminine associates which can be veterans as properly. They usually simply go to park in a veteran parking spot, and anyone will make feedback to them,” stated Repair. “You shouldn’t park there, until it’s your father, your husband’s with you. And so I feel as a result of we don’t appear like we’re army…I feel we’re typically ignored as veterans.”

The occasion is a solution to share all of the totally different experiences that include being a feminine veteran.

“You go to the VA and also you see a tons of male veterans, you rarely see every other females. So I feel with this occasion, it’s an opportunity so that you can get to satisfy different feminine veterans within the space,” stated Repair. “It’s your probability to, , make connections and presumably associates. Discuss to different individuals who’ve been by what you’ve been by. So it’s simply, , nice for one thing to simply acknowledge feminine veterans.”

The free occasion is June 23. The hyperlink to register might be discovered right here.

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