The 13 Watchdog team is learning there are concerns by organizers of a veterans benefit that they won’t be able to host a charity event at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans this summer.

(WZZM) – The 13 Watchdog team is learning there are concerns from organizers of a veterans benefit that they won’t be able to host their charity event at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans this summer.

Last year, more than $100,000 was raised for projects at the Home for Veterans and for veterans in need through the Freedom Cruise, a week-long series of events that were sponsored, in part, by WZZM 13. The 13 Watchdog team has reported for months about numerous problems at the facility including questions about the care of our veterans.

The founder of the Freedom Cruise is Kent County Commissioner Tom Antor, who told us he is growing concerned after waiting for approval for seven months.

“All we want to do is help veterans, and that’s all we’re about right now,” Antor said.

Antor says they had a successful 2015 Freedom Cruise and hoped to make in-kind capital expense contributions to the Home for Veterans as a result of the event. Thelen said the new management had not reviewed the proposal.

“We haven’t been given an opportunity to review this and our primary focus is taking care of the veterans in the Home,” Thelen said.

Thelen said Antor and others need to engage the new management again to try to see if this will work out.

Antor says he’s engaged them through multiple sources and needs an answer soon to see if the big party can be done again.

“We don’t want an adversarial relationship, we just want to take care of veterans,” Antor said.

Antor says if the Home for Veterans won’t host the event for the second straight year, they will try to find another venue to host the event to help the veterans.

( 2016 WZZM)

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