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Volunteers man Columbia veterans service office

Daily Herald - 3/17/2019

March 17-- Mar. 17--Former servicemen and women have kept the Veteran's Service Office in Columbia open after the passing of former director of James Patterson.

The office, located at 8 Public Square after moving from the Memorial Building, has been manned by volunteers from the non-profit organizations the Disabled Veterans of America and the Combat Veterans of America Motorcycle Club.

The volunteers have kept the office's food pantry running, giving the region's veterans who have fallen on hard times a place to pick up groceries and receive moral support.

Within the past week, at least one veteran have visited the office to pick up food from the pantry that was originally launched by Patterson.

"Our sole purpose here is to make sure veterans don't go hungry," Butch Hickman, a member of the charitable motorcycle group, told The Daily Herald on Friday.

The Combat Veterans of America Motorcycle Club works to raise awareness for veterans causes and support fellow veterans by sponsoring and participating in charitable efforts for service men and women.

"We care about veterans, and we have a good food pantry for them," said fellow volunteer Bill Ivey. "Our motto is 'vets helping vets,' and that is what we do. We do lots of service projects. It keeps us busy helping vets, and we like it."

As the volunteers cannot process any requests on behalf of the organization, they are redirecting veterans to service offices in the surrounding area.

As a result, the office has been redirecting veterans primarily to offices in Lawrence and Marshall counties.

An overflow of cases are usually sent to Maury County, not the other way around, County Mayor Andy Ogles said during a public meeting this month.

The mayor said the office has the highest number of claims in the Middle Tennessee region.

Before his passing, Patterson told The Daily Herald that veterans travel from Kentucky and West Tennessee to receive support from the organization, which already serves about 7,000 veterans living in southern Middle Tennessee.

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