NEVERSINK — Alex Dudek is the Sullivan County representative for the Action Toward Independence (ATI), a not-for-profit organization funded by the Office of Mental Health in New York State. ATI helps the transition of veterans from active duty to a civilian lifestyles. Dudek visited Neversink Town Board during their recent meeting  to announce both the overall success of the organization, and what that means for this county in the coming months. 

Their approval by all 62 counties (made to be official on October 1) allows the group to “maintain and improve mental health amongst our veterans and service members.” 

Dudek, a six year veteran himself, has applied to have a festival at the Grahamsville Fairgrounds on October 22, and wanted to give the board a formal summary on how it’s going to work. 

Organized by Vet2Vet, the day would include a small parade through mid-town Grahamsville and a flag lifting ceremony. He and his team have organized a shuttle to be constantly going from the fairgrounds to an approved parking section at Tri-Valley School. The shuttle, the attendance of the festival itself, live entertainment, and catering provided by the fire department will be free to all veterans and their family members. During this time, Action Toward Independence will try to expose the vets to “anything that will improve their life.” 

Participatory sporting events will be taking place as job recruiters and college representatives offer informative paperwork to show these veterans that they shouldn’t be afraid of change in their life. 

“A lot of us got out of the military, and it was kind of hard for us to transition into civilian life. When you do the same thing every day for two, four, six years...it’s a little hard to transition so abruptly. The military does not do a very good job of outboarding us...I had no idea that companies like what I work for and represent exist.” 

The organization is hoping for an attendance of 1,000 vets, and 4,000 people overall when including families. They are trying to inform locals across all of Ulster, Sullivan, Dutchess and Orange County. 

Playground update 

Adele Henderson Barnard, former elementary school teacher for Tri-Valley, wanted to give the board an update on the local playground project that she’s involved in. 

Their plan is to fundraise enough money to put a playground next to the baseball fields on Route 42. 

She reminded them about their raffle sales, which are tickets you can buy for $10 that come with a chance to win either $1,000, $1,500, or $2,500. The profits they’ve gained through this, and Barnard’s letter to local businesses asking for donations have already given them a profit of over $21,000. They hope to reach a total of $35,000 by the end of the raffle sales. 

A few notable contributions include the town itself donating $10,000, Catskill Hudson Bank donating $1,000, and the speaker’s sons donating both $300 and $301. 

Follow their Facebook group entitled Route 42 Community Playground Project for more updates.