[music] [music] >> Welcome everyone. It's back to the Anoka Community Podcast. I am joined today [music] by the one and only Bart Ward of Haven for Heroes. And uh it's just a pleasure to not only know you, but for to have you come into the studio and talk about this great organization that has been a staple in Anoka for 8 years now, almost 10 years, which is hard to believe, I'm sure. So, Bart, thank you so much for coming in. >> Billy, thanks for having me. Always love coming over to QCTV. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, uh just from the very start, uh I know Anoka knows you guys very well, but for anybody watching who doesn't know who you are, can you just give us a short overview for what Haven for Heroes is and the services that you guys provide? >> Yeah, so Haven for Heroes is a non-profit 501 c3. Uh we have control of four of the buildings at the Anoka County Rum River Human Services Campus. Uh we lease uh well, the way it really works is the county leases the buildings to the city of Anoka for nothing. The city of Anoka leases the buildings to Haven for Heroes for nothing. Our job is to fix the the the four buildings up. Three of the buildings are housing buildings. So, uh those buildings uh our job is to uh put veterans in them. Cottage two, all these buildings are are all the housing buildings are are called cottages. They're 25,000 square foot modern gothic mansions built in the early 1900s. Uh and uh the state of Minnesota built them, owned them. And now the county since uh, the '90s has owned those buildings. And uh, so our job is to fix those buildings up and put veterans in them. To that end, cottage two is is for men, cottage four is for women and children. Cottage three will most likely be for men and that's about 95% done. And then we have control of the historic uh, auditorium, which uh, is is probably one of the neatest historic buildings in the county. Uh, we're in there. That will be uh, used uh, for combination of reasons. Um, but we're in the process of restoring that right now. >> Excellent. Yeah, and I always am so awestruck by the work that you guys do. Every time I talk to you, it's it's truly a a success in its own right, and I know the work is never done. So, it's it's truly remarkable, and most of it comes from volunteer hours and donations. And what I always love talking to you about, but the the next question really just surrounds what do you think attributes to that success in and of itself of getting the volunteers and all those >> I think the project sells itself. I mean, first of all, Minnesotans get it. They they are very generous to veterans. Um, in fact, it's in a kind of an interesting sta- statistic in this part of the the uh, Minnesota, we get a lot of uh, uh, folks who go into the Navy. And we don't have a Navy base here in Minnesota. Uh, but we do we we the Navy is you know, does very well in this area on recruitment. But I think it really is the project. I mean, obviously you have to have strong credibility. Whenever you're raising money and you're spending that money, credibility is really, really important. To that end, we've we've got a pretty credible board. Um our state senator, Jim Abeler, and his wife, Barb, are two of our board members. Doug Hookem, who was the former commander of the Legion, still very involved in the Legion in Anoka. And then myself and Ellen. Uh you know, I I spent 20 some years at the County Historical Society as a board member. And Ellen spent three terms at the library board. So, we've got good relationships with the county. This is a regional uh project. I mean, in some respects, it's national. We'll get uh donations that come out of Southern California. We'll get cash donations that come out out of New York. We've had a lot of of in-kind donations. Uh GAF put the roof on Cottage 3 as far as supplying the material to us. That material is a quarter million dollars worth of material. Uh you've had a lot of contractors, big contractors, little contractors involved in this. Some 1,100 volunteers. Maybe pushing 1,200 now. Both uh volunteers that help in the construction and the rehab side, but also uh Ellen, she's very involved uh in in the management of this operation. And the uh front office is staffed with folks who are volunteers. And uh so, I think I think it's an easy sell. Uh people understand what we're trying to do. We're helping veterans who need a a helping hand up. We're trying to get them back in the in in the system. Uh get them on their feet. Get them transitioned out. Help them find jobs. Help them build resumes. Help them get VA connected. Uh in in maybe a a better way than they they were before they came to us. A lot of veterans really do not know how to navigate the VA system. And of course, Anoka County is legendary in its, uh, veteran service office. For decades, it has been well-known that, uh, that that veteran service office has got a lot of talent in it. And, uh, John Crecelius running it nowadays, and he's got some good people. Uh, and so, uh, we have a lot of resources right in this area. Uh, the new vet center, I call it new vet center. It was in Brooklyn Park for a long time. Now it's in downtown Anoka. And there's only two in Minnesota, and we've got one that's only, uh, about a mile away from the Haven. >> Yeah, and one thing that I do that I don't want to go unnoticed, and we talked a little bit about this right before we started. But this was not a project for everybody. Like we talked we talked a little bit about a lot of people taking a look at it before before, uh, you guys, uh, really came, uh, into formation in '18. And it was really, uh, I mean, it obviously the board collectively has a lot of great experience that that led to, um, the business model. But but can you just speak a little bit about your history and, um, the expertise that you brought to the Haven and how and how to make this busi- this business model work? >> I I think every board member has got uh, unique talents, different talents, which is really crucial in any business. I spent 41 years in the in the investment management business. Uh, covered 134 New York Stock Exchange listed companies, very focused. Um, didn't spread ourselves too thin. Uh, visited a lot of these companies. You know, you talk to the CEO, uh, the chairman of the boards of major US corporations. It gives you a leg up when you're talking to companies that want to help Haven for Heroes. Of course, uh uh Doug Hookum, who's a one of our board members, had the most experience with veterans. Uh running the Legion, um being involved at the state level and and the the local level uh with all of his connections and people that he knows. Uh Ellen was on the library board uh for three terms. Uh worked in the investment business as well. And so she comes with some some talent that others uh others on the board don't have. And uh of course Jim and Barb Abler have got a lot of connections. Um Barb brings us uh some social media talent that no one else has on our board. And and a lot of other things in her toolkit. Of course, Jim Abler was heavily involved in health and human services at the state rep level and and at the Senate level. And uh health and human services is part of what we're doing. We interface with Anoka County's uh human service division and the state of Minnesota's uh um human services. >> Great. Great. So let's take it let's take it back to uh the ground level with the veterans. And so just to kind of um give you a good preface to to go off of um if if I or anybody else was a veteran who walked onto Haven for Heroes day one, what can we expect from the services? Well, the first thing we do uh with any veteran who's interested in staying at Haven for Heroes is do an in-person interview. We interview everybody. We do background checks on our volunteers, on people who are uh are at that campus, and we do background checks on uh veterans as well. There's some people we simply cannot take in. Um, sexual predators and violence, we're probably not going to be having a person, you know, we're group housing. And um unfortunately, you know, a lot of women veterans that we take care of have had some type of sexual trauma in their life, either in the military, out of the military, or both. And we take that that really seriously. So, that building has extra security in it. Um, and and you know, anyone who comes to the Haven is anonymous. I mean, you could be there and your mother could call up and unless we have your permission uh, we're not telling anybody who's at the Haven. Uh, after an interview, if if uh, we bring them in then the first thing that uh, we do is we restrict them to the house for a certain a number of days unless they go out with with someone else. They have to sign out. They usually get a mentor. That mentor sort of acclimate them to what we're we're doing here. I mean, when you come to the Haven, you're expected to do some chores, you're expected to do if you're not working, which a lot of our veterans are working these days. Um, you got to put some time in. Um, even veterans who do work have to do some uh, work. We have meetings. A lot of veterans that we take care of come out of the St. Cloud VA, which has a residential recovery treatment program. So, we are a sober house. So, no drugs and alcohol. And uh, we want you to be going to meetings. Um, you know, we have a we have just across the river from us uh, an Al-Anon over there that a number of our vets go to, but we do hold uh, meetings at the Haven. And uh, the majority of our vets when they come from the VA and the majority of our vets do come from the VA, but the majority that come from the VA will probably have a social worker, uh, may have a doctor assigned to them, a nurse assigned to them. We're part of the Range program. The Range program's been around at the VA for some time, but not in this area. And what that means is they actually send social workers, nurses out to the Haven to um, do follow up on the veterans that we get who've come out of the VA. They might have come out of VA mental health. Uh, which would, you know, there is some of that up in St. Cloud, but the Minneapolis VA has a real big uh, mental health division as well. And so um, they'll be assigned a a person from Range. >> Good. Good. And so to that, what would you say is the most important aspect to the veteran community that you have at Haven? >> Well, safety, security, housing. I mean if you come to the Haven and you probably don't have a lot of resources and housing is and you know, food, shelter. Really important to these people. I mean a lot of people that we have had stay with us have been on the streets at one time or another. They know how to live on the streets. Um, and they come to us and and and they've got shelter and they've got protection. >> Right. It's about peace of mind. >> Yeah. >> you know. And and obviously you guys are doing incredible work to bring that peace of mind and know that you know, you guys are there for them and uh, and then they're they're there for each other, too. That's that's so great. That's so great. And so can you tell us a little bit more about the cottages themselves and a little bit about the the ongoing work that seems to never end with the cottages and sort about the renovations that have either been completed so far and that are underway. >> Absolutely, Billy. Um you know, these buildings are were built in the early part of the the 1900s. Um we tried to to get some pictures from the Minnesota Historical Society or from the state archives and just haven't been able to get any pictures of the building of the buildings, which is unusual because usually when the state takes on a big complex like that builds it out they they do a lot of pictures. My understanding is that the the tunnels that connected the buildings and brought services into the buildings and the foundations were were dug by uh donkey's draglines and buckets. Um and so this was a 20-year project. Uh the first cottage was probably finished in around 1903, started in 1900. By the time they get all the way around the campus and it's it's in a circle. Um it's 20 years later. And so each building has a circuit number on it. Uh date and uh uh the auditorium is is 1919. >> [snorts] >> And um uh so you know, the cottage one being done around 1903, cottage two was done in 1905. Uh the buildings changed as they built them. I think they learned a lot of things. Um these campuses were copied from campuses that were built in England. And so the English got into this business of having a total working farm there, uh which which this campus did as a state mental institution. At one time it was called the Anoka Insane Asylum. Um and and when you think about it, they were built at a time when Anoka was, you know, pretty isolated from the Twin Cities. I mean, there wasn't much in between the city of Anoka and Minneapolis or St. Paul back in the day. >> That's right. Yeah. >> And uh when you think about where they were built, the only thing that was really up there was a railroad track, which was utilized to bring in the material to build these things. So, they haven't the buildings we have control of haven't been used for a while. And so, we had to do some pretty extensive renovation, uh uh asbestos abatement. Uh Cottage 3 was flooded out. Uh a water main broke in it. And so, there was mold in the building we had to abate. So, those are the first places that you get started is is abatement and or in the case of Cottage 3, the first place to start was to put a roof on it. And these are million-dollar roofs. Um the county spends real money to put a roof on these things. We, you know, we're uh did the same thing. I mean, uh the roof on Cottage 3 had a hole in it. There was a tree growing out of the top of it. So, the water was penetrating from both the roof and we had this uh or at one time the county had a had a water main that broke. So, that thing was a total mess. Where Cottage 2 was in pretty good shape, you know, uh uh Jim Ebler uh stated when we first got this thing up and running that we'd have that open in 57 days. We did. >> Wow. >> That building was was in use by the county. They'd put a new roof on it. And so, that's where we started. And then, the women's cottage cottage four was the next one we tackled. Uh that one Mortenson Construction came to the rescue. And they brought Gephart Electric and Harris Mechanical and other subcontractors. And they did significant restoration in that building. And And those guys are the are big boys. These people know what they're doing. Uh a lot of the you know, a lot of the mechanics, a lot of the electrical in those buildings are 100 years old. And the kind of people that they bring with them understand what they're looking at, and they know how to fix it. >> Yeah. >> And so, uh uh cottage three was a or cottage four was the the the next one we tackled. Got that up and running. And then, cottage three was the real mess that we tore into. And that took some time. >> Yeah. How how long are you even Are you even completed with cottage three? >> It's basically done. >> Okay. >> Um there there's we need to get a couple more things done. We've got uh some folks coming in to get our fire alarm systems in. We've settled on who were who's going to do that. They're going to donate part of that to us. And then, we just have to hook up uh internet, which is already plugged in by Comcast. And um that will drive our cameras, cuz we have cameras in and outside of the buildings. And it'll drive our keyless entry system. >> Okay. >> So, that's all in. And the keyless entry is in. It's just that it needs to be hooked uh to internet to work. And so, we're just about done with that. Now, our all-volunteer construction crew uh is over in the auditorium. They've moved all their the majority of their equipment uh supplies, tools over there. And and we're taking a whack at that. >> Yeah, so the auditorium is the next on the docket to get completed. What's kind of I know we just talked about all the windows that you just put into it. What's kind of the timeline that you have for the auditorium? >> You know, part of it is going to get done. We're building a commercial kitchen in there and we just had some folks come yesterday to work on the electricity. That building has to get more electricity in it. One time it had quite a bit. It could It could pull about 400 amps. But that was taken down years ago. There's a lot of equipment in there because it has a full-blown stage. It had a lots of lighting cuz they did plays in there. And then it has a projection room. So it has when you get into the mechanical room, you can see there's some serious hardware in there that needs to get upgraded. And and and so we're working on that right now. The roof is secured. We've had great luck with flat roofers as well as as steep roofers helping us out. And the windows Marvin windows really swung the bat. Uh Um along with Magath construction, they did all the measuring. Every window was marked when it came off the Marvin truck as to where it went in the building. So as they as as we unloaded those windows, they were sent right to the exact spot in the auditorium. All the windows in the basement are tempered. And so they all fit. It was unbelievable. I mean here's a building that's over 100 years old and every window that was measured fit perfectly. >> Wow, that's incredible. Yeah, and um for And I know it's going to be a long process with the auditorium still. It's still a lot. I mean, it's it's It's the reason why you kind of are we're saving it because it's uh you know, you want to get the housing done first and then >> Absolutely. >> and then, you know, tackle the auditorium once you have everything else kind of settled. Um what with the auditorium in mind as far as the the rest of the campus goes, what else is kind of expected to be on your plate for everything beyond? >> Yeah. >> Well, you know, we're always trying to improve the buildings that we have and provide more services and more I'm just going to say stuff for veterans. >> Sure. >> Um so, you know, things that have to do with weight rooms and exercise rooms. We're going to have some more work done this year on that. We've got uh >> Yeah. >> uh uh one of the uh a local club's is going to take another whack uh at the uh at the uh exercise weight room over in uh cottage four, the women's cottage. Uh which you know, the Rotary really did a lot of work. They got all the equipment, raised the money uh to get the flooring in there. And um so, so, you know, we're we're always trying to improve what we can do for for our veterans. And so, once we get basic housing covered, the buildings open, then it's just more fundraising and trying to to make life life easier for them. Um you know, we have a lot of good relationships. I say 2025 veteran organizations in the state of Minnesota. Uh the word I use robust groups. There's a lot of veteran organizations in Minnesota. Uh there's a handful that really have a lot of resources. >> Yeah. >> And we try to tie up with those. And I'll give you an example. Up in Duluth is 23rd Veteran run by Mike Waldron. They do what we call used to call a ruck march. Now it's it's it's called life ruck. Um rucksack. You know, uh army carries them on their back. And so they do a 10-mile walk, raises money for us, raises money for them. They're very big into PTSD. Uh Mike Waldron runs a program that some of our vets have used. It's just probably second to none. >> Yeah. >> Uh in the country in terms of helping people uh with PTSD. And he's got a very unique way of doing it. Of course, the two VAs, the Minneapolis VA and the St. Cloud VA. Uh that's where the majority of our veterans come from. The Anoka County Veteran Service Office is big. Um we have uh a a good relationship with the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans, MACV. They were created in in the early 1990s to eliminate, eradicate veteran homelessness in Minnesota. They're run by a a fellow by the name of Neil Loidolt, General Loidolt. He is awesome. He's got a great team of people. Uh they send people to us, we send people to them from time to time. Uh and we're in a program where we can have up to five of our veterans who are living with us apply for what's known as a HUD-VASH voucher. That's essentially Section 8 for veterans. So they can get their own place. And it comes with a little more than typical Section 8 does. They get counselors. they get inspectors that come with them. A lot of providers uh that provide either Section 8 or HUD-VASH um like HUD-VASH because of that little extra attention that the veteran gets, the inspections, and the monitoring. You know, they have to pay some of their rent. And so uh the um you know, that the the folks that are running HUD-VASH, mostly the Community Research Resource and Referral Center, which is part of the VA down on Harmon Place in Minneapolis, they're really the main drivers of HUD-VASH. And so, a number of our vets have got their own place now. You know, they stayed with us, they've they've got work. Um they get, you know, enough money saved up, they get themselves a car, and then they can get themselves a place. >> That's great. That's great. Well, we've talked a lot about all of the different organizations, community members, volunteers, charitable donations. What can people do to get in touch with you to contribute to what you guys are doing? >> Sure. Uh you know, getting a hold of us is easy. We have a website, we've got Facebook. Uh it's Haven for Heroes. Uh it's it's so our website site is Haven the number four heroes .org. And right there, you can get all the information that you need if you're interested in volunteering, if you're interested in making donations. Uh we have people who we have a number of organizations that every month they make food for us. They bring it to us. Um and so, just last night, the Daughters of the American Revolution showed up for a picnic. They show up once a month typically. Uh they brought some Boy Scouts with them. We've had, I don't know, seven or eight Eagle Scout projects. Uh almost every year it seems we get some kind of an Eagle Scout project. Uh that's really been great. Every everything from horseshoe pits to basketball to to sheds. Um just really really good stuff. And uh so we always need volunteers. I mean, if you know how to do a little plumbing and you know how to do some electricity, you know how to pound some nails, we'll take uh you know, an hour's worth of your time a week. We'll take 10 hours worth of your time a week. Our all-volunteer construction crew has been coming there since 2017. >> Wow. >> 30, 40 hours a week. >> Wow. >> And it grew from two to three people to up to seven or eight people. There are sometimes Now, Home Depot last year sent 50 people. They brought uh 10 more with them from Behr Paint. They brought about five or six thousand dollars worth of paint with them and they painted rooms in Cottage 3. >> Mhm. >> Um uh Keller Williams for years has sent between 40 and 60 people uh in May >> Mhm. >> to give us a hand. So, we've had a a lot of folks um who have you know, sent plenty of people. And then when that happens, our the person that that is our project manager for our all-volunteer construction crew, she and and another fellow, they have to sit down and figure out how are we going to put 50, 60 people to work. So, that when they show up, they're not standing around trying to figure out what they're going to do. They go to work right away. So, she breaks them up into 10 teams. Could be two people, could be 10 people, could be teams of you know, 15 people. But she knows she's got it pretty well figured out. She's also was a little lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, so >> That'll help. >> Yeah, she knows how to get stuff done. >> Yeah. Well, Bart, that's about all the time we have today. I want to, on behalf of everybody, not only here at QCTV, but everybody the community of Anoka, thank you for everything that you and the rest of the board members do for our veterans and and the community at large. And so, thank you very much for coming on the show today and I look forward to being in contact with you in the future. >> Glad to be here. >> Thank you. >> You. >> Well, that wraps up this edition of the Anoka Community Podcast and we sure hope you enjoyed it. Join us next week for more community podcasts and if you want to stay connected to everything happening in Anoka, Champlin, Andover, and Ramsey, make sure to like, follow, and subscribe on YouTube, Facebook, or wherever you listen to podcast. You can also find more local stories and updates anytime at qctv.org. Thank you for joining us. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]