Veterans living in Washington County are invited to get to know local Veterans Affairs staff and the services they provide during an upcoming event series.

The Washington County Veterans Affairs Office is offering free coffee and a sweet treat from 8:30-10 a.m. at different locations throughout the county from June 2nd-9th. County Veterans Service Officer Sue Rich understands if some veterans may not be able to attend the meet and greets during this time, but she hopes to host additional events in the future to assist those who have served, “We’re just wanting to reach out to all of our veterans to meet them, see if there’s anything that they are needing from us that we’re not aware of and just to basically introduce ourselves. We’ve been here for a long time but there are still a lot of veterans who don’t know that our services exist.”

For a snapshot of the assistance provided, Washington County veterans received $5,523,000 in pension and compensation in 2019. Rich also points out that veterans who are 100% permanently disabled or surviving spouses of those veterans are eligible to have their property taxes waived, and spouses of veterans who died of a service-connected disability are also entitled to income from the VA. The meet and greets will be held in Ainsworth, Brighton, Crawfordsville, Kalona, Riverside, and Wellman.