Politics & Government

Oakdale Kicks Off Yellow Ribbon Campaign

The No. 1 challenge in a new Yellow Ribbon community is finding military families, Yellow Ribbon officials say.

By completing the third of 16 steps to becoming a Beyond the Yellow Ribbon community, the city of Oakdale has officially made a commitment to support its servicemembers and military families.

In a collective show of support for the initiative, Oakdale mayor Carmen Sarrack, fire chief Jeff Anderson, police chief Bill Sullivan, state Rep. Nora Slawick and the City Council turned up to the Yellow Ribbon Kickoff on Sept. 14 at the . 

According to its website, Beyond the Yellow Ribbon is a comprehensive support network that works to meet the needs of servicemembers, military families and employers across the state of Minnesota.

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Annette Kuyper, director of military outreach for the State of Minnesota, was on hand to outline the basic requirements of a Yellow Ribbon community.

"I'm not here to ask you for money," Kuyper told the crowd. "I'm here to show you the baseline needs of these servicemember and their families."

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Yellow Ribbon communities operate on a completely volunteer basis. They do not approach municipalities for funds, nor do they hold fundraising events.

According to Kuyper, the six most important things a community can offer servicemembers and their families are the following:

  • Financial planning (basic budgeting)
  • Healthcare (mental and physical health)
  • Community Awareness (get-togethers, faith-based networks)
  • Quality employment (resume writing, networking, mentoring)
  • Family support (babysitting, shoveling snow, mowing lawns)
  • Education (support for returning veterans and their children)

Kuyper, a mother of two veterans, spoke of the "strength and resiliency" with which soldiers serving overseas can do their jobs when they know their families are being taken care of on the homefront.

Before the burgeoning Yellow Ribbon program in Oakdale can help its servicemembers or their families, it needs to be able to locate them.

"The No. 1 challenge in any Yellow Ribbon community is finding military families. There simply is not a network in place to locate (military families)," Kuyper said before urging the crowd to seek out military families in schools, churches and workplaces.

Although the Oakdale program is still in its infancy, Marc Cove, the city's Yellow Ribbon director, spoke of the 2,000 Boy Scouts ready and willing to help right now.

"This is their only philanthropic work outside of the Scouts," Cove said.

Cove also made clear his priorities as the leader of the Oakdale initiative.

"The most important thing to me is that we do the work. The work is far more important than the (Yellow Ribbon) sign," Cove told the crowd.

Cove spent the final part of his presentation highlighting the four areas that have already been established in Oakdale: 

  • Arrow Force (volunteers for handy jobs i.e. shoveling, mowing, etc.)
  • Business Services Management Team (volunteers helping with finances)
  • Fun 2 Night (volunteers helping people reconnect through planned events, designed for caregivers/parents)
  • Deploy to Employ (volunteers helping with resume writing and networking)

"We also have at least one representative from each of seven community subsections to serve on our Steering Committee," Cove said.

The Oakdale Yellow Ribbon initiative is very young but according to Sgt. Andrew Peterson, regional Yellow Ribbon outreach coordinator, the community is on the right track to make a real difference.

"Oakdale is a highly organized community. They're highly energized," Peterson said. "Marc is a high energy guy and everyone I've spoken to is really eager to serve this community."

As of Sept. 16, 71 inidividual communities have been proclaimed Yellow Ribbon communities. Oakdale is not yet on that list.

The next meeting for the Oakdale Yellow Ribbon program will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 24, in the city council chambers.


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