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COMMUNITY BUILDING SUPPORTS LAUNCHING A VIBRANT G.I. COFFEEHOUSE

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (web site only)
August 2008

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seattle911/archives/145271.asp (abridged)

GI Voice is an organization that supports soldiers and their families by providing resources to help veterans and active duty soldiers dealing with health problems and other issues related to military service, including Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and suicide. GI Voice also provides information on counseling services and jobs for veterans.

The GI Voice Project has three aspects to its approach to promoting GI rights. GIVoice.com is the first tier of our service. It is an Internet website that provides a forum for soldiers, veterans, and their families to speak out about their experiences. It also provides a wealth of information on GI rights, as well as links to organizations that provide counseling, marital, health care, and other services.

The second element is GIRadio.org, an online radio station streaming music, information, and unfiltered news to soldiers around the globe.

The third effort is the GI coffeehouse, which we will be opening later this Fall. The coffeehouse will be a meeting place for soldiers to learn about their rights and about specific resources available to them.

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The idea of a coffeehouse has sparked the energy of many groups from New York and Texas to Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia. Following the press conference in Seattle August 5th, we have had an outpouring of support and offers to help open the doors of the yet unnamed coffeehouse. Offers include espresso machines, cash register, furniture, supplies to run a coffee cart, computers for research and information, bar stools, and offers of coffee to be sold to the public, as a way to support the business. One woman who has been through a lot with her veteran husband has offered to assist with disability counseling and filling out forms. Other offers have poured in with support in the area of management skills and training of baristas. A couple of locations are under consideration, and research into initial opening costs are near completion.

All that is needed now are funds to ensure the health of the business for its first six months. To help us with donations, we need substantive amounts to pay the Health Department and local city council for necessary permits and for rent. It’s also possible for working people to make small monthly donations, which will be tremendously helpful.

There are three ways to send donations to the coffeehouse. At http://GIvoice.org there is a button on the top left of the home page. Click there to make a direct donation using a credit card -- or, if you prefer, you can mail a check to "GI Voice" and the mailing address is at the website. Alternatively, if people want their donations to be tax-deductible, they can make the check out to Seattle Draft & Military Counseling Center (or SDMCC for short). SDMCC has agreed to serve as a fiscal sponsor for the internet cafe, and 100% of the donation will go directly to the cafe (we're not taking a fiscal sponsor fee).

A fundraiser for the coffeehouse will be held at 7:00 p.m. on August 25 at the Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Avenue, in Seattle. Hugo House is just one block east of Seattle Central Community College, directly north of Cal Anderson Park. Parking is challenging in this part of town, so please arrive early, and carpool or bus if possible. We will be joined at the fundraiser by Tod Ensign, director of Citizen Soldier, which sponsors the Different drummer Internet Café near Fort Drum in upstate New York. Tod will share what he has learned working with families and soldiers over the past two years in a setting similar to the one we are planning for the GI coffeehouse at Fort Lewis.

“Soldiers need information, resources, and support -- more than 25,000 men and women in the military live and work near Fort Lewis . . . I will personally challenge my family to raise $1,000 for this project and encourage others concerned about soldiers’ well-being to do the same." --Alex Bacon, Board Chair of Seattle Draft & Military Counseling Center and G.I. Rights Network Advisory Committee Member.

Our goal for the GI coffeehouse is to have a long-term self-sustaining project -- a safe place for soldiers, family members, and veterans to gather and talk.

Please come see us at the fundraiser if your local organization would like to know how to support this effort. Representatives from some 30 organizations, including Veterans for Peace, WA Physicians for Social Responsibility, Western WA Fellowship of Reconciliation, Sound Non-Violent Opponents of War (S.N.O.W.), Citizen Soldier, and Iraq Veterans Against the War (Chapter 8) will be present to help involve the larger community in supporting our soldiers in a concrete way.