Cache Valley Veterans Association mission is to improve and optimize programs, benefits and services to veterans, service members and their families.
Schae Richards, community editor
When Phil Redlinger and his wife moved to Cache Valley six years ago, being a veteran himself, he noticed a lack of resources available for local veterans.
Phil does work full time helping veterans, but he felt he had to do more so he started creating a program that would help improve veterans services, benefits for the veterans in Cache, Rich, Box Elder and Franklin counties.
He started to do more research on non profit information for veterans organizations and applied for Cache Valley Veterans Association Non Profit Status. In 2016, Phil started working with six board members to formalize and begin operations.
The purpose of the Cache Valley Veterans Association is “to improve and optimize programs, benefits and services to veterans, service members and their families.”
The association works with the Veterans of Foreign Wars and other membership and assistance programs to help service members, veterans and their families obtain their benefits. They also work to improve and create services for veterans.
“We want to make sure they are getting their benefits, and reconnecting back to home here in Cache while also finding that comrade and service they once had while in the military,” Phil said. “We all had brotherhood and sisterhood while serving and we all want that something after we get out. Helping each-other and our community is most important to a veteran but also getting back into the groove.”
Phil and six other board members work tirelessly to make sure every veteran in our local community is taken care of. Five of the board members and two of their spouses are veterans.
“We are veterans helping veterans, serving the community,” he said.
The Cache Valley Veterans Association also offer services for ceremonies on Veterans Day and other occasions, and they get the community involved in their cause, too. For example, they organized and recently held their Run to Remember race at Elk Ridge Park. This race was created to bring awareness to veteran suicide and help rescue homeless dogs.
Phil plans to keep doing what he loves.
“It’s not about the paycheck, it’s about the value of helping my fellow Veterans and their families and continuing to serve,” he said.
Moving forward, Phil said they will continue to improve these resources for local veterans. They are also working to find a building where they can offer even more resources as a Veterans one-stop resource center in Cache Valley, the first Veterans Resource Center in Utah
“We have helped so many veterans,” he said. “We have had a lot of success.”
To learn more about the Cache Valley Veterans Association, visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/CVVA16.
