Tomah VA Awards Landlord of the Year
Mark and Cindy Strobel with Tomah VA’s Peer Support Specialist Ken Anderson and Associate Director of Patient Center Care Karen Long.
The sun shined on the campus of the Tomah VA Medical Center as dozens of people participated in the 8th Annual VA2K Walk Run.
Seventy-seven Veterans, employees and community members walked the 1.2-mile course around the facility. The event benefits homeless Veterans while promoting health and wellness.
“The VA2K is a great way to work with our community partners. It’s always a pleasure to have the community visitors come into our campus. We feel that our campus here is actually an environment of healing and wellness,” said Karen Long, Tomah VAMC Associate Director of Patient Care Services.
Courtney Volpe and her friends participated while pushing baby strollers along the route.
“My friend used to work at the VA and my husband is a Veteran. It was a lot of fun and a great cause to come out and support,” said the Tomah resident whose husband was recently stationed at Fort McCoy.
The event also generated donations of 12 crockpots, a dozen coffee pots, and several personal/household items.
Highlighting the program before the walk started, the Tomah VA Homeless Program presented the 2018 HUD-VASH Landlord of the Year to Mark and Cindy Strobel.
“We do this for our landlord that really goes above and beyond to help our Veterans “, said Ken Anderson, Peer Support Specialist. “Not only is he a landlord, he is a caring landlord. He goes in and checks on them and makes sure they are doing well.”
The Strobels currently have seven Veterans living in their properties.
“We work closely with the VA and the HUD-VASH program to just do our part in helping to reduce the homelessness in the Veteran population,” said Mark.
This is his third year working with the VA and HUD-VAHS and a third of his tenants are Veterans.
