COURT HOUSE – For Dominick Mignano, who served six years in the National Guard, receiving financial help from the local Citizens and Veterans Advisory Committee when he was on the verge of becoming homeless was “heaven sent!”

For Christopher Amacher, another veteran who received financial assistance from CVAC, help meant his daughter could continue attending the school she knew and loved when he moved out of the district.

And for Janet Klecz, the widow of an Army veteran, help with paying for a new air conditioning system “astounded” her because it happened so quickly and meant so much to her.

For veterans and their widows across the county who find themselves homeless, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or needing help for anything from rides to medical appointments to building a ramp or seeking information, CVAC seems to be the “front line for vets who often slip through the cracks,” Amacher said.

“The Veterans Administration is available to help medically, but CVAC is a local organization that helps financially and with other aspects of life,” he added.

CVAC, which just celebrated its eleventh year, was founded by Vietnam War-era veteran Johnnie Walker of Lower Township because he believes it takes a village to work together to help others. It is this idea that permeates his work helping veterans in need. Now boasting some 85 members, CVAC’s network includes everyone from professional people to business owners to housewives and other organizations who want to help veterans and their families.

Since it started, CVAC has spent about $225,000 helping 250 local veterans and families. While most of the veterans who receive help are male, their needs are varied. For example, one Navy veteran was recently helped with rent for November. He just got a job with the U.S. Coast Guard in the galley and will be able to take over his rent in December.

CVAC will step in and help with mortgage or rent payments as well as security payments if the situation is a more permanent housing arrangement.

Three vets who served in Iraq or Afghanistan recently found themselves homeless. CVAC connected them with Catholic Social Services to get assistance with jobs, schooling and mental health needs. Last summer, an 82-year-old Navy veteran needed housing, as she was living in Rio Grande out of her car.

“Veterans are unique because they are heroes at one time because they answer the call to help defend our nation wherever they have to,” Walker said. “But many of them come back with PTSD, and many people don’t realize the problems that come with it. What might be a little problem for us becomes a major problem for a person with PTSD.

“I believe it takes all of us pulling together as a village to help each other, especially our veterans from all the wars,” Walker added. “It doesn’t make a difference what era they served in. We need to honor our veterans.”

Mignano, who was a helicopter repair mechanic in the National Guard from 1979-85, was on the verge of being homeless following surgery, separation from his wife, and treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction. The death of his father compounded issues, and he found himself needing help.

“I had never called upon the Veterans Administration before this, but now that I connected with CVAC, I feel like I didn’t waste six years of my life serving my country,” Mignano, of Wildwood, said. “CVAC was very understanding and professional in dealing with me, and helped me put my life back together. Everything about my moving into a new home was heaven sent! They made it happen,” he told the Herald.

“They stepped up in my hour of need, and now, I will do the same for them,” he said. He has operated his own carpentry business for 40 years and intends to help other vets who find themselves in need of CVAC’s help.

CVAC’s vice chairman Greg Speed – one of two CVAC case managers – said during the search to help Mignano find a new home, they met a landlord who was “happy to help a veteran and is willing to help other vets.” CVAC helped Mignano with his first month’s rent and security deposit.

Now, he said he is back on his feet, has successfully completed a treatment program for his addiction, and reconnected with his wife of 40 years. “It’s awesome,” he said. “We’re moving today, and I do believe in a higher power making this all happen.”

Speed has been involved with CVAC for about nine years because his son and son-in-law both serve in the military. “While I didn’t serve, my son is an Air Force lieutenant colonel in his 19th year and now at the Pentagon. He’s been deployed five times to Afghanistan.

“My son-in-law also is a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, so we know from a family perspective what vets go through,” he added. Speed worked 47 years in the mental health industry and brings his clinical experience to CVAC. “I wanted to give back.”

His involvement helped Klecz when her air conditioning system broke down. “I was just a mess, am still a mess,” she said describing herself since her husband, Barry, died in May 2022. He served in the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division from 1969-72 as a paratrooper, and they were married for 33 years before his death.

“I was terrified of being a widow,” she admitted, “really panic-stricken. My husband had renal failure and radiation for prostate cancer made him anemic. He also had sepsis before he died; it was a very sad situation when he got sick. Our home was just six years old when the appliances started to quit. Greg had been counseling me and told me that CVAC was there to help vets and widows, and if I ever needed help, to let him know.”

So she did.

“If Barry was here and knew how CVAC had helped, he would have been ecstatic,” his widow, of Rio Grande, said. “It would have meant so much to him.”

CVAC helped pay for half the cost of the new AC system, she said. “I gave Greg my husband’s DD-214 and he consulted with the CVAC group and within mere hours, I was approved for half the cost of the system. I was stunned by their generosity.”

Amacher, of DelHaven, is a 10-year Army veteran who served during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He found himself needing help when he had to move outside the school district where his 11-year-old daughter had been attending because his home services business had slowed down. He shares custody of his daughter and doesn’t have a big support system locally because his family is in Tennesee. Moving outside the school district meant paying a hefty monthly tuition.

“CVAC helped me with tuition and a storage unit I needed because of my move,” Amacher explained. “Now, my daughter continues to thrive at school, and I am back on my feet. CVAC helped me, and now it’s my opportunity to give back and help other vets.”

Contact the reporter, Karen Knight, at kknight@cmcherald.com.