A new veterans service and veteran impact organization is expected to open up soon in DeKalb’s Junction Shopping Center.

RTW Veteran Center, 854 W. Lincoln Highway, has been a long time in the making.

DeKalb resident and veteran Daniel “Doc” Habeel and his late wife, Arnetha Gholston-Habeel, co-founded the veterans service and veteran impact organization years ago under the same name.

RTW Veteran Center has a long history, dating back to the early 2010s and its roots in Chicago’s Washington Park neighborhood.

The center amassed a claim to fame as “The Miracle on 55th Street” thanks to its founders and their leadership from 2010 to 2017, according to its website.

Habeel said it means a lot to him to see the RTW Veteran Center brought back to life, this time in DeKalb.

“Once it gets up and running, I think it’ll be a really nice contribution,” Habeel said.

The center is undergoing some improvements and is not yet open to the public.

Habeel said he believes the RTW Center will fill a need in the community that has gone underserved.

Not all veterans and their families want to be affiliated with the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars organizations, he said.

Habeel said he doesn’t like how some military veteran service organizations are run.

“There was a lot of politics,” Habeel said. “People jockeying for positions.”

RTW Veteran Center strives to be different.

Habeel said the center aims to bring veterans together to experience the camaraderie felt in the military.

From fish fries to live entertainment, the center will offer a variety of things for people to do.

Habeel recalled how simple it was to draw people into the former RTW Center in Chicago.

“It didn’t take much to get people to come out,” Habeel said.

Also on site at 854 W. Lincoln Highway is the nonprofit home of Made In DeKalb, a new training center for customized textile manufacturing.

Made In DeKalb has a mission to help bring manufacturing back to America.

Habeel is partnering with Calvin Jarred of Bee Apparel Manufacturing on a training program that employs clients from the Chicago-based social service agency Ada S. McKinley Community Services.

“They train 18 to 24 years to work these industrial sewing machines,” he said. “At the end of the program, they get a free machine. That’s a program we hope to instill out here.”

For information, visit rtwvetcenter.org/home.