La Salle County Veterans Assistance seeks, helps its growing clientele

The men and women of the military past and present who have served this country when it needed them most have advocates throughout the Illinois Valley – friends who are watching their backs and helping them when many of them need help the most.

The La Salle County Veterans Assistance Commission, in Peru, is available to veterans of all branches and all theaters as they apply for benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense and a variety of other agencies.

“We’re out trying to reach every veteran we can, the ones that don’t need our help but especially the ones that do.”

—  Lissa Olson, La Salle County Veterans Assistance Commission assistant superintendent

In fiscal 2022, the agency, which also can help them obtain military documents and awards, helped distribute more than $5.8 million in benefits to veterans and their families, more than double the figure it dealt with in 2021.

This year, the agency still is rolling. With two months to go, it already has brought in more than $1.5 million in compensation benefits, survivors benefits and more.

“We are liaisons to the Veterans [Benefits] Administration to help veterans navigate the crazy system of the VA,” LCVAC assistant superintendent Lissa Olson said. “We’re out trying to reach every veteran we can, the ones that don’t need our help but especially the ones that do.

“They are all veterans, they have all served our country, and they all deserve to at least see what’s available. We just need to get them in the door because you never know what’s out there for them.

“Unfortunately, sometimes we can’t find things to help them, but we try. So far we’re doing it, but we want to do better. … We’re really proud, as a staff, to be able to put up numbers like that. It’s really huge.”

Olson said all branches of the military are getting better at informing veterans what’s available to them, but there still is a way to go.

That’s why the LCVAC was established in 1985 by Marty Rue, to assist veterans through its office in Ottawa. The move to new offices at 4231 Progress Blvd. in 2020 – with enough space for veterans groups to meet with other branches and a computer lab – has helped it double its clientele in that time.

That means more people who could benefit from information on medical care for injuries and ailments incurred while in the service. It also highlights changes in government programs such as the PACT Act, which expands VA health benefits to those with toxic exposures to things such as burn pits and Agent Orange, to those who served in the Vietnam, Gulf War and post-9/11 eras and for a screening for toxic exposures of all VA health care recipients.

“We definitely go above and beyond, so much more than claims,” Olson said. “We do events. We help with every entity and do everything we possibly can. … Yet we still have people coming in saying they didn’t know we exist, despite the outreach events, radio, newspapers – and they still don’t know. We’ve had vets come in and end up with benefits they could have been collecting for the last 20 to 25 years, but just didn’t know it.”

And that advocacy is free.

Christa Hammers, a U.S. Air Force veteran who is now the LCVAC superintendent, is a certified veterans advocate, the only designation in the country that allows the person to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., to argue a case for a veteran without being a lawyer.

“You don’t need to give up your back pay or what you’ve earned because we can do it all,” Olson said. “We can do what lawyers can do, for free. They can say they do it faster, but the VA doesn’t work that way. They adjudicate it the same, whether it’s them or us, only we don’t take your money.”

Olson, a native of Spring Valley and graduate of Hall High School, got involved in LCVAC when it had a post on Facebook that it was hiring.

“Getting into veterans affairs, I definitely didn’t realize it’s as big as it is,” Olson said. “I really truly didn’t know what to expect. Like most of the world, not being a veteran, I was blind to their situations and what they needed, so I jumped in feet first and ran with it.

“I’m so glad I did. It feels great to be able to help people, especially those that have served their country so well.”