Events to focus on veterans

Utah veterans will be honored and helped in November by programs of the Utah Division of Veterans Affairs and other state and federal agencies.

Veterans wanting to learn how to get into business for themselves are invited to participate in an entrepreneurial workshop Nov. 4 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Building 9.

The workshop will feature speakers from the Center for Veterans Enterprise and the Veterans Corp., both of Washington, D.C., and Randy Horiuchi, of the Salt Lake County Council, who works with a Utah agency that provides funding for start-up businesses, said Terry Schow, director of the Utah Division of Veterans Affairs.

Schow said because of limited seating participants must call 326-2372 to register for the workshop.

On Nov. 5, the agencies are sponsoring the annual Homeless Veterans Stand Down at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center multipurpose center, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. A stand down, in military terms, means to take a reprieve from normal activities and examine how a unit functions and why.

During the event, homeless vets will be given clothing, medical exams, including eye exams, legal advice and help from local lawyers, flu shots and breakfast and lunch, Schow said. His office has been linking up with veterans representatives who have been going into the various homeless shelters and giving bus tokens to vets and advising them of the stand down.

"Last year we had a couple hundred guys show up and we had about 100 volunteers from Hill Air Force Base help us," he said. "It's always good to see the active guys helping the vets."

Schow estimates there could be as many as 1,000 homeless veterans in the Salt Lake Valley. "Depending on who you talk to, they figure about 40 percent of the homeless are veterans. These guys are hard to count, they move around so much."

Gov. Olene Walker will be the keynote speaker for a Veterans Day memorial service on Nov. 11 at the Utah Veterans Memorial Park and Cemetery north of Camp Williams. A Marine Corps honor guard will be present, and after the ceremony inside the cemetery's chapel the governor will lay a wreath outside to honor the dead, Schow said.

A free public concert at 7 that night in the Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus will feature the 82nd Airborne Chorus, which will also perform close order drill while singing.

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