CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

CVMA: veterans helping veterans

Creston News Advertiser - 8/15/2018

Aug. 15--Art "Sandman" Tousignant might turn a few heads with his black leather vest that dons a large skull on the back, but if those who stop and talk with him will learn he is more than a motorcycle enthusiast.

Tousignant is a member of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association (CVMA), and as the association's statewide representative, he is on a mission to help veterans.

On Aug. 24-26, Union County residents can expect an influx of motorcyclists on the roads as more than 100 motorcycles will be in town. CVMA members from Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas will be holding their annual, regional meeting at Three Mile Lake.

"I looked at different areas and then I looked at the Creston area," said Tousignant. "Creston and Union County actually have a lot to offer and I think sometimes people miss that."

CVMA regional meeting

CVMA members will begin to arrive in Union CountyAug. 23 with the majority of members arriving the following day.

"We have invited some local veterans, not necessarily motorcyclists, to come out and meet our guys, talk to them and see what we do," said Tousignant.

Tousignant said the regional meeting itself only lasts about an hour or so, but that the weekend activities are more about veterans connecting with other veterans.

"Usually a guitar or two gets broken out. We sit around the bonfire and tell war stories. We just socialize with people from out of state," said Tousignant.

After a Friday social at Three Mile Lake, the members and friends will meet at Pasture 241 Pub for a buffet-style breakfast before a police-escorted ride to the Union County Freedom Rock.

At the Freedom Rock, CVMA members will host a ceremony with a tolling of a bell to honor combat veterans who have passed.

"We will honor the fallen," said Tousignant. "We will be laying a memorial wreath there for those who are no longer with us -- whether they died in peace time or in combat."

Kickstands will go up at 10 a.m.Aug. 25 in Afton. Following the ride and ceremony, CVMA members are expected to scope out the area and have lunch in the local restaurants before heading back to Three Mile Lake for their regional meeting at 2 p.m.

About CVMA

"The Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association is an association of combat veterans who also happen to ride motorcycles. A lot," said Tousignant. "Our mission is to help take care of other veterans or veteran organizations -- either through fundraising, take care of a homeless vet, a veteran who has an emergency ... we help with those kind of things."

Tousignant said the members of CVMA help with suicide prevention among veterans.

"Sometimes it's no more than going out and sitting down with a veteran and being there to listen to their story," said Tousignant. "Our guys have been there."

As the Iowa state representative for the CVMA, Tousignant tracks the number of calls and visits its members do. Since the beginning of 2018, the Iowa CVMA has logged more than 200 days where members have met with veterans -- who are suicidal or severely depressed -- by phone or in person.

"If you can get them to understand, number one, that they are not the only one, because there is that feeling," said Tousignant. "While they were in the military they thought they were Superman and they were invincible. Then the mission goes away once they are no longer in the military and they go back to a quasi-normal life, and the walls start creeping in."

Tousignant said many veterans the association's members have helped are from small towns.

"Often times (they join) for college money. Then they went off to some nasty third world country, did what Uncle Sam wanted them to do, and they came home different," described Tousignant.

Tousignant said the problem lies in that the friends, family and community often do not know how to interact with veterans and their needs once they return home from war.

The CVMA members do not lobby congress or bang on the doors of state representatives, but they do advocate on behalf of veterans to help them navigate a system that is often draped in bureaucratic red tape.

"Sometimes it just takes another veteran to sit down with them, so there is a certain familiarity about who they are talking to," said Tousignant. "We use the same terms, we understand the teamwork concept, we understand holding each other accountable and responsible. And, they start figuring out that they may need some help in doing this."

Tousignant said the peer support is a critical part in helping veterans return to "that same person they were before."

___

(c)2018 the Creston News Advertiser (Creston, Iowa)

Visit the Creston News Advertiser (Creston, Iowa) at www.crestonnewsadvertiser.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.