New state veterans affairs secretary building network to serve
Kenneth “Skip” Wingo spoke to dozens of people over two months trying to help a woman find a wheelchair ramp for her military veteran father, frustrated there was no coordination for services.
The man died before a ramp could be found, said Wingo, who is third vice commander and service officer for American Legion Post 28 near Millsboro. There have been other examples of missed opportunities to help veterans, he said.
“Veterans struggle without the services they need,” Wingo said. “We have to do a better job of communicating somehow.”
When he recounted his efforts during an Oct. 17 veterans town hall at Post 28, retired National Guard Brig. Gen. Karen Berry asked him to send her a list of groups that had ramps, wheelchairs and other equipment that could help veterans.
Berry has been meeting with veterans groups to find out their needs since she began her new role as the state’s first secretary of veterans affairs Oct. 1.
“Seventy thousand veterans now have a seat at the table,” said Rep. Jeff Hilovsky, R-Long Neck, an Air Force veteran who also attended the meeting and was among those who spoke to the handful of people who attended.
Berry said she is building the structure of her office from scratch, consulting with people she knows in similar jobs and veterans in communities who daily try to connect their fellow veterans with benefits and services they need.
The Oct. 17 event offered an opportunity for Veterans Affairs representatives to meet with veterans and their spouses to connect them to medical and other benefits.
Ediath DeVore, a community relations coordinator for the Delaware Veterans Home in Milford, said staff of the long-term-care facility have expanded their role. They do whatever they can to fill unmet needs of area veterans and their spouses, DeVore said.
Vietnam veterans did not always receive the recognition they deserved when they returned home, and a priority is reaching out to them and younger veterans through social media to connect them to benefits and form community, Berry said
“We are an aging population,” she said of veterans as a whole. “If you want to reach out to the younger folks, we’ve got to meet them where they are.”
The state veterans affairs office is also working to improve a rudimentary website to make it more useful for veterans, Berry said.
“The most important piece of my job, and the team that’s currently working for me and the team that I am to build, is that we support veterans and their families and make sure we can increase the awareness, educate the population so they understand what benefits they have,” Berry said.
“We need to work as a community,” she said. “We need to work together.”
Kevin Conlon came to the Cape Gazette with nearly 40 years of newspaper experience since graduating from St. Bonaventure University in New York with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. He reports on Sussex County government and other assignments as needed.
His career spans working as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers in upstate New York, including The Daily Gazette in Schenectady. He comes to the Cape Gazette from the Cortland Standard, where he was an editor for more than 25 years, and in recent years also contributed as a columnist and opinion page writer. He and his staff won regional and state writing awards.
Conlon was relocating to Lewes when he came across an advertisement for a reporter job at the Cape Gazette, and the decision to pursue it paid off. His new position gives him an opportunity to stay in a career that he loves, covering local news for an independently owned newspaper.
Conlon is the father of seven children and grandfather to two young boys. In his spare time, he trains for and competes in triathlons and other races. Now settling into the Cape Region, he is searching out hilly trails and roads with wide shoulders. He is a fan of St. Bonaventure sports, especially rugby and basketball, as well as following the Mets, Steelers and Celtics.
