“We can’t wait any longer to provide this healing space for our veterans,” Christina Loveless shared through choked up tears. “We did 34 suicide interventions last year. That’s more than triple the number I’ve experienced in any previous year. We will move Veterans into Restoring Hope before the end of 2025.”
THEIR MISSION
Our Bankers are standing in the former Boswell National Guard Armory listening to Christina share the story of the Mary T. Klinker Veterans Resource Center (referred to as MTK). The organization has been serving Veterans since 2010. MTK exists to restore hope to Veterans who have become lost in life through financial assistance, peer support, and a Veteran-centered approach to healing. “We will leave no Veteran behind!”
A facility to help Veterans has been in the works for several years, but MTK leadership knew they couldn’t wait any longer. Over the last year, the organization has been hard at work planning, fundraising, and renovating what will be Restoring Hope – a safe place for all Indiana Veterans to come and heal together. “We’re almost there,” expressed Christina as she pointed at the fundraising thermometer by the entrance. “As our pledges roll in and word spreads, we are in the home stretch of our campaign.”
RESTORING HOPE
Participants of the Patriot Ride for Restoring Hope paused for a photo outside the new facility.
As Christina showed us around the vacant building, we envisioned the sleeping quarters for Veterans who come to stay – big enough for comfort, but small enough to encourage them to spend time with others in the building. Across the hall there are a few spaces for families to come and stay together through the healing process. Working with their architect, MTK plans spaces for family visits, a hands-on workshop, dining, watching television or shooting pool. Out the back door, Veterans will have access to an outdoor kitchen, fire pit, and new picnic tables. Christina’s husband Scott is working on a project in the gym; the couple is in this mission together. Restoring Hope is the start of a 5-year plan for MTK to have beds for 100 Veterans to come and heal at any given time in our region.
As we wrapped up our visit, the Alliance Bank team presented Christina with a donation of $2,400 for the Restoring Hope facility. A gift from the Bank’s Casual for a Cause program – employee donations, matched by the Bank. Bank employees felt a strong connection to the work of Mary T. Klinker, ramping up their giving this past quarter. Community members who believe in their mission can learn more and contribute online at mtkvets.org. The organization needs volunteers for various roles – promotion, event planning, restoration work, and working directly with Veterans.
A HERO
We could feel Mary T. Klinker’s presence from her portrait hanging in the hall, a recent gift from the Klinker family. The Lafayette native worked at St. Elizabeth Hospital when she joined the Air Force in 1970 as a flight nurse. Mary was stationed in the Philippines as the end of the Vietnam War approached. Captain Klinker would lose her life on April 4th, 1975; she was part of “Operation Babylift” to evacuate over 2,000 orphans from Saigon. Mechanical failures on the plane she boarded that day would force an emergency landing; Mary and 138 others lost their lives. At age 27, she was the only member of the US Air Force Nurse Corps to be killed in Vietnam.
