ON ISLAND
Islanders Unite to Support Veterans Housing
Providing Comprehensive Programs to Veterans and Their Families
By Tessa Permar
A crowd of 4,000 rose as Kate Taylor sang the National Anthem at the July 3rd Sharks game. Players exchanged their purples for uniforms celebrating the night’s honorees: veterans of Martha’s Vineyard. Sharks President and General Manager Russ Curran asked the veterans to come forward so that the players could shake each veteran’s hand in gratitude. As fans shopped for Veterans/Sharks shirts and donors purchased Memorial bricks, a sudden weather event descended. The sky darkened and fans squeezed under a tent that covered a silent auction. In time, the skies cleared, and viewers continued showing support to the veterans of Martha’s Vineyard.
This third annual Sharks game supporting veterans highlighted an enduring collective effort to provide veterans with affordable housing. In 2023, the Town of Oak Bluffs granted the Island Housing Trust (IHT) and Cape and Islands Veterans Outreach Center (CIVOC) 3.4 acres. Veterans and leaders of MV Community Services’ Veterans Outreach Group Tom Bennett and Bob Tankard have been dreaming of this for years.
“Tom asked me to come on six years ago. I was retired.” Mr. Tankard recalls, after a career as a beloved educator and school principal. “He said, Let's do one last hurrah together. And I said, I'm gonna give you one year.” Fast forward to present day, “we've been a team for each other. We do all we can to help support our veterans.”
Early on, Tankard and Bennett were struggling to sustain housing for three local veterans. After an inspiring visit to the CIVOC office in Hyannis, they founded the Advisory Committee of Veterans and the Veterans Housing Committee. Key individuals including Jane Chandler, local store owner, Anita Botti, long-time public servant, and Russ Curran to name a few, stepped up to help. Local veterans Jim Bishop and Mark Leonard bolstered the decision to grant the land on Bellevue Ave.
At that meeting, “there must have been close to 200 people there,” Tankard recalls. “The selectman, the finance committee, the people in the audience overwhelmingly voted to move the project forward.” Bennett echoes, “We are very indebted to the town of Oak Bluffs.”
“This [project] is the first of its kind,” explains Jane Chandler, owner of The Beach House in Vineyard Haven and champion provider of organizational and fundraising support. “We will have a resource center for Veterans,” she continues. “We're fundraising to have beautiful brick walkways, meditation areas, and places for service dogs.” They plan to break ground this summer, with IHT overseeing the build. Joanna McCarthy and Philippe Jordi have been instrumental in the fundraising and coordination of what will become a three-building campus, each with four single-bedroom rental units for veterans making up to 80% of the median area income for Dukes County. Upon completion, CIVOC will provide facilities management and ongoing support to residents. Mr. Tankard, who co-leads two weekly veterans meetings along with Mr. Bennett, is thrilled for the future residents: “The other eleven [residents] are going to be like them. That will be their service group. And they will prosper.”
Thanks to tireless local efforts and a recent $2.1 million grant awarded by the State to CIVOC, the build is scheduled to wrap in December 2026. And while fundraising continues for furniture, clothing, and food support, a new challenge has emerged. Mr. Bennett explains: “When Vietnam veterans came back from the war, they were not treated well. As the government realized the problems with post-traumatic stress disorder, they set up contracts in rural settings to do counseling for veterans. 1986 was the first contract we got, and we’ve had it for 39 years. For the first time, the VA just did not renew [the contract].”
Anita Botti, recruited by Jane Chandler to work on the Veteran’s Advisory Committee, has held leadership roles in Peace Corps and US Department of State in DC. Ms. Botti now lives on the Vineyard and continues to provide fundraising for the housing project and community support to veterans. She emphasizes that access to counseling for veterans is a critical basic need: “We do fundraisers to help support housing, fuel, rent, food, medicine.” In addition to the housing project, “We are trying to raise sufficient funds over the next few years to continue counseling.” She remains hopeful: “Each year, more and more people step up.”
Mr. Bennett summarizes, ”We want all our veterans, through the services we try to provide, to know that they've not been forgotten and that we honor them.” Supporting Veterans is more than a show of gratitude once a year. “It feels good as a non-veteran to be able to constantly reinforce how grateful we are for their service,” says Chandler. “You could not find a more deserving and appreciative group of people.”
For more information or make a contribution contact:
Bob Tankard, Veterans Outreach Coordinator: 508-693-7900 x272, rtankard@mvcommunityservices.org.
To volunteer or make a donation visit: mvcommunityservices.org.