Lewis honored for service to veterans

Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis, along with Enumclaw Mayor John Wise, was honored recently by the Vietnam Veterans of America, Seattle Chapter No. 102 for his work on the passage of the King County Veterans and Human Services Levy. The award was presented at the organization’s state convention in Seattle on June 29.

The mayors served on the King County Council Regional Policy Committee, the Regional Coalition for Housing (ARCH), and South King County human service planning groups, and through these activities, brought the idea for levy to the King County Council in 2005. The council unanimously placed the measure on the ballot.

“Veterans and their families have benefited from this levy,” said chapter president Debra Wood. “We wanted to give them credit for their efforts to help veterans in King County and we wanted to honor them for that.”

The Veterans and Human Services Levy was passed by the voters of King County in November 2005 to generate much needed funding to help veterans, military personnel and their families and other individuals and families in need across the county through a variety of housing and supportive services.

This levy allocates approximately $13.3 million per year for six years to implement human services for veterans, their families, and other low-income residents of King County. One half of these revenues are targeted for veterans and their families, and the remaining half is dedicated to other King County residents in need of human services. The levy will remain in effect until 2011.

“I certainly was not expecting this,” said a surprised Lewis. “We were only doing what we thought was right.”

Auburn received $40,000 in Veterans Levy dollars to build a 1,928 sq. foot building in its Veterans Memorial Park in order to expand King County Veterans’ Program services to areas of the county outside Seattle. The building serves as the headquarters for the American Legion Auburn Post #78 and will eventually host a satellite office for the King County Veterans’ Program.

About Vietnam Veterans of America

Founded in 1978, Vietnam Veterans of America is the only national Vietnam veterans organization congressionally chartered and exclusively dedicated to Vietnam-era veterans and their families. VVA is organized as a not-for-profit corporation and is tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(19) of the Internal Revenue Service Code.

VVA’s goals are to promote and support the full range of issues important to Vietnam veterans, to create a new identity for this generation of veterans, and to change public perception of Vietnam veterans. For more information, visit www.vva.org.

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