By Dorothy Meindok
The Post Newspaper Veterans Consultant
It’s been going on for 10 years in a quiet room at Bay Harbour United Methodist Church in League City. At last tally, this group has quietly served and assisted veterans and their loved ones providing a “peer to peer,” supportive group meeting, every Thursday night for 10 years, reaching over 300 individual veterans without charging a dime. The group receives donated support from community leaders, nonprofits and even the veterans themselves who attend or have been recipients of the extraordinary family that has formed there.
At the helm is founding member, USMC Vietnam Veteran (’66-’67) Jerry D. Clark, MA LPC who in his spare time is a success coach, counselor, author and speaker. The group started in the usual business fashion, looking to make charts and business plans and the like when one day they decided. “Let’s just open the doors and start.”
Now, 10 years later, multitudes of veterans and those that love us are certainly glad they made that decision to create their own blueprint of how a successful group like this could develop. I am one of them for certain.
In the ‘90s, I walked into the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center severely disgruntled and lost. PTSD had stuck its ugly nose into my life again and I was on a lethal downward spiral. Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure there was any hope left for me anymore. I had seen and participated in truly world-renowned medical care all over the planet and had made some great progress when I found myself floored again over a reminiscent smell. Apparently, the olfactory system is one of the most potent triggers for PTSD, I was to soon learn. My world was upside down over a smell! I was unhappy to say the least because the smell was connected to my hard earned, newfound career choice.
I found myself back at square one. I was assigned to a PTSD group at the hospital that met daily and since the VHA, VBA and Vet Center teams that had previously helped me, saving me from my own demise said I should go, I did so, figuring, “well they got something right last time, maybe this will work.”
I walked into a room of tried-and-true warriors that met my own definition as to that identifier: warrior. These were men from Vietnam and Korea, boots on the ground types! I felt certainly out of place. I was just a girl from a much smaller war but had not ever been a boot on the ground, and I was also the only female. Every hero in that room was at least 15 years my senior and in the world of my veteran mind, far surpassed me in paygrade status. I thought, “great, VA, this is certainly going to be a mistake. I don’t belong here amongst these giants.”
I wanted to run and hide for sure. I told the men in that room as much as I planned to never return. They stopped me fast and cold in my tracks; they welcomed me, put their arms around me as a younger, sister veteran and helped me to heal. It was one of the two single most effective things that had ever happened in my lifelong journey of coping with and living with PTSD. No, it wasn’t always fun, it was hard with so many days and having my own brothers not only helped me self-reflect but also supported me fully while doing that as I helped them. I realized what made me click was service above self. I went on to become a lawyer for veterans because of that group.
Years later I found myself and my legal work hip deep and drowning fast while helping a few brothers in the Midwest. I was knocked down as I had not ever been before and again, angry down to my soul suffering a moral injury. As my PTSD crept up and fed upon me and my grief, I wasn’t so sure I’d make it. There was no hope in reforming my old group…. That’s when, by writing for this newspaper, I met a veteran who invited me to Transitions Plus. I was skeptical but decided I’d at least check it out and maybe write a story on it. To my great and blessed surprise, I found another home. I’ve been attending ever since. My anger and ability to process that anger has found a place to do that safely and the peers in that group, just like my first group from years past, have helped to rebuild me using loving arms.
This year, they celebrate 10 years of healing and support! Please give them a big round of applause! Thank you to the Bay Harbour Methodist Church that has provided a meeting space for the last 520 Thursdays for veterans’ wellness. Thank you to the veterans that keep coming to support each other and thank you to the community of League City and Galveston County that support the group and help nourish our spirits and our bodies with food & drink before each meeting, such as Rotarians from Seabrook Rotary Club and C.H.A.M.P. (Below please find more information on these wonderful organizations, what they are doing all around Houston/Galveston and how to join in)!
To learn more about Marine Jerry D. Clark and his peer focused works, please visit www.JerryDClark.com and www.TransitionsPlus.org or simply show up at the church next Thursday night and let the healing begin, naturally.
Come, meet up and simply socialize at “Coffee with a Vet” sponsored by C.H.A.M.P. also on Thursdays (but in the morning beginning at 10:00am) across from NASA Johnson Space Center in the Houston/Galveston Nassau Bay Area at Java Owl Coffee House. It’s a great environment filled with conversation, games, music and, of course, great coffee, yummy treats and sandwiches (like the Cubano!) For more information check out: www.CHAMP.vet and www.facebook.com/JavaOwlCoffeeHouse/ (I am working on a few feature stories on both of these groups, so stay tuned).
Coming up next week, I’ll share more about “service above self” and how that ties into our veteran community leading many to our local Veterans Rotary Club of Greater Houston (https://rotaryclubofgreaterhoustonveterans.org/) that is getting ready for fun community events like the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Armed Forces Appreciation Day (https://www.rodeohouston.com/Visit-the-Rodeo/Special-Days) and Rotary Day, as well as our Seabrook Rotary’s annual event “Men Who Cook XXIX” at Lakewood Yacht Club (www.SeabrookMenWhoCook.org) coming up February 7, 2023. (If you are a man that cooks, they’d love to have you participate directly to show off your skills, so check ‘em out.
See you next week!
Dorothy Meindok is The Post Newspaper’s Veterans Consultant. Ms. Meindok served her nation in the United States Navy and is currently a practicing lawyer advocating for our nation’s veterans. Her column appears on Sundays.
