Sean C. Morgan
Terry Shank wants to get more involvement from younger veterans at the Sweet Home Veterans Club.
To get there, he has led a major remodel of the club’s stage.
“The stage is something that I wanted to do,” said Shank, a member of the AmVets. “We were looking for ways to start bringing our environment up to date and interest younger veterans.
“We seem to have a lot more to offer than what they realize, and it could be a good outlet for them,” Shank said, noting that this is a time when younger veterans are returning from war zones with more post-traumatic stress disorder and associated issues.
Shank said the public should know about the new stage and the shows the Veterans Club is starting to add.
A comedy show featuring Joe Stoddard, who has served as emcee at the Oregon Jamboree, and Susan Rice is going to be the club’s first big event, Shank said, although before that, a special after-hours show is planned during the Jamboree the first weekend in August. Details for that show will be announced later.
“I’ve got some other shows happening after that,” Shank said.
The new stage is complete, he said. He’s dealing with a couple of details on the project, but it is essentially complete.
“We finished it about a month ago,” Shank said. The club had its first band, “Tight Kitty,” a blues act, play on the stage during its adult prom, held on May 20. Another show is planned for Saturday, June 30, with a live band, from 8 to 11 p.m. June 30, the evening of the Sweet Home Sweet Ride car show.
“We had a number of volunteers who helped and worked on the stage with me,” Shank said. Harry Smith was instrumental in helping with the electrical work, including new outlets and updated circuitry. The stage has a new lighting package, and Shank wants to add more lights and a patriotic black light graphic.
The stage is 4 feet deeper, Shanke said. The carpet is gone, and the new part of the stage was finished in the same fir that was under the carpet.
Shank provided most of the materials for the project. Others donated materials, time and skills.
“It’s another way to try to draw people into the club,” Shank said. That includes the community.
“It’s important to me because I want to see the club succeed,” Shank said. “If we don’t have our organizations, the people we’ve served for years are going to lose that. There’s nobody behind us to pick that up.”
Among those activities are hosting veterans from the hospitals, he said. Members of the organizations also visit them and provide a variety of services to veterans.
The community needs a bigger venue for events, Shank said, and he plans to bring bigger acts off the road into the Vets house. The facility can handle upward of 250 people.
Members of the club organizations would like to help other organizations, such as the Gary Sinise Foundation and Wounded Warriors.
“Right now we have to help ourselves before we can do those things,” Shank said. This will give people a reason to be there, and it will attract interest from outside the community, bringing visitors to Sweet Home.
It complements what the veterans have already done with the work outside of the club, Shank said, and the club is planning more improvements to help make it a better asset to the community.
Stoddard and Rice are scheduled to perform at 8 p.m. on Aug. 25. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.
For information or tickets, call (541) 367-4435. The club is located at 580 Main St.