Turn your porchlight green to help vets

As Veterans Day approaches, Steele County officials plan to support a movement that creates a visible show of support for veterans and raises awareness for services available to them.

Launched last year in New York, Operation Green Light encourages governments, businesses, and residents to display green lights Nov. 7-13 and let veterans know they are appreciated. County commissioners approved participation during their Oct. 26 meeting.

“We plan to light our buildings, at least a couple of our buildings with green lights,” county administrator Scott Golberg said.

That will include the front and back of the Steele County Administration Center on Florence Street and the County Courthouse southeast entry. Owatonna Public Utilities will install the bulbs at no cost; the county will pay $125 for bulbs.

Commissioners also signed off on a letter to Steele County’s congressional delegation urging support for the Commitment to Veteran Support and Outreach (CVSO) Act (H.R. 4601/S.2405). According to the letter, the “bipartisan legislation would provide critical federal resources to county veteran service officers (CVSOs), who are often a veteran’s first point of contact in the community for accessing services.”

Rene Gilormini, Steele County’s veteran service officer, said only 29 states have CVSOs and Minnesota is among them. His office serves about 4,000 people each year–not only veterans, but also their families and surviving spouses.

“Anything we can do to acknowledge our veterans and help them out, especially with the bill going through Congress, will be money well spent,” commissioner Greg Krueger said.

Jannelle Tufte, a mortgage lender with Profinium, first heard about Operation Light in her role as city clerk in Geneva.

“The Freeborn County veterans service officer reached out and said they were trying to get the word out about this new initiative,” she said. “In Geneva, we passed a resolution and are combining forces, going door to door to hand out green light bulbs in hopes (residents) will light their doors.”

Tufte shared the initiative with her manager and marketing person at Profinium as well.

“They immediately went to our leadership team and asked if we could promote it at our four locations,” she said. “Within hours, they said absolutely, anything we can do.”

Operation Green Light is especially important to Tufte, who has worked more than 22 years with veterans applying for home loans. In that role, she works often with Gilormini and said she also reached out to him about Operation Green Light.

Along with green lights on its buildings, Profinium has set up tables stacked with green lights that anyone can stop by and pick up to light up their own home.

“We also have a donation box, and donations will got to MACV (Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans),” she said, adding that group also helps connect veterans with the help that’s available to them.

Often, Tufte said, men and women in the service “are deployed, they come home, and they don’t know what benefits are available.”

Gilormini told commissioners he hopes to obtain a grant to fund a coordinator who can work directly with individual veterans. The CVSO Act would provide $250 million for states to expand offices and help with that work.

Gilmorni said his office is working with a couple of homeless veterans who are struggling to find services. A coordinator, he said, would help “take them by the hands and take them where they need to go.”