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A crowd of veterans gathered at the At Ease Campground Thursday afternoon for a friendly meet and greet. This was the first time one of these meetings was held, part of a partnership with the Decatur County Veterans Coalition, and according to Don Fabian, they hope to continue this into the future.

“The meeting tonight was formulated because of a group of people through the VA, who wanted to create a Decatur County coalition,” he explained, “bringing veterans together to prevent suicide… but they would like the organization to be more.” Fabian is both a retired Army veteran, as well as the owner of At Ease Campground. He went on to elaborate, saying, “The four of us here that were a part of that coalition said, ‘Well everybody talks about doing stuff, let’s do something,’… and just get locals and veterans to meet each other, hang out, share information. A little comradery.”

Attendees spoke about various topics and issues, and food was offered for everyone. One of the highlights of the evening was the upcoming Inner MacGyver program. The program is the creation of Lee Zoltoff, author of the “MacGyver” book series, and is aimed at helping veterans deal with PTSD. At Ease Campground will be hosting four pilot sessions, two 3-day sessions (April 25-27 and May 2-4), and two 2-day intensive sessions (April 28-30 and May 5-7). Free lodging and food will be provided during these sessions.

Additionally, Fabian hopes to hold American Legion meetings at the campground for Bainbridge veterans.

“It’s great that so many people showed up, and obviously, this is a good idea in the sense that, there’s enough people here to make it worthwhile.”