NORWAY — The Stone-Smart American Legion Post 82 is looking for women veterans who may be eligible for benefits.

The post is hosting a Women Veteran Information Forum from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, at its Main Street hall. The program is open to all women veterans.

Veterans who qualify for benefits include all active duty and former military personnel, including the reserves and National Guard, who received an honorable discharge.

“We recently held a Veterans’ Outreach and it was well attended,” Post Commander Ron Snow said. Fourteen new veterans signed up for benefits at the Veterans Administration in Togus. But while the outreach was successful no women veterans attended.

“This program is gender specific and I hope that we can reach out to a lot of women veterans,” he said.

Snow said Veterans Administration representatives will attend, including Cindy Swaney and Tammy Quimby, both commissioners with the Maine Women Veterans’ Commission; LaRhonda Harris, the VA Women Veterans Health Program manager; Peter Ogden, director of Maine Department Services; Ellie Newell from the South Paris Veterans’ Home and Brenda Dearborn, commander of the Maine Department of the American Legion.

Snow said there are currently 6,000 veterans, both men and women, in Oxford County and only 1,900 are enrolled in the VA Health Care System. Of the 6,000, about 600 are women, he said.

“You can see we have a long way to go reach out to these veterans to get the benefits that they maybe entitled to,” he said.

Overall, Maine has around 10,000 women veterans and only about 1,000 have been reached by this program, Snow aid.

The Veterans Administration said there are several women veterans still living in Maine who are in their 90s and at least one former Maine resident who is 102 and moved back to her hometown in Canada. About 20 percent of the current armed forces are women.

“They are entitled to the full array of services that our country can provide to them if eligible,” Snow said in a statement. “I encourage all women veterans to attend this meeting on the 3rd of December. This meeting is being run by women for women. The Veterans Administration is recognizing that there are gender specific issues and are attempting to reach out to the women.”

Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Services was established in 1947. The bureau’s main office is located at Camp Keyes in Augusta. The bureau comes under the Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management. In addition to the main office, the bureau has six field service offices throughout the state and a claims office at the US Department of Veterans Affairs in Togus.

The Bureau of Maine Veterans’ Services provides information and program assistance for state and federal benefits, VA claims and appeals, memorial facilities and financial aid, officials said.

“Our intent is to ensure that Maine veterans and their dependents receive all entitlements due under the law, are relieved to the extent possible of financial hardship, receive every opportunity for self-improvement through higher education and are afforded proper recognition for their service and sacrifice to the nation,” Snow said.

The Maine’s Advisory Commission on Women Veterans was established by the 118th Maine Legislature to act as advisory commission to the Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management on issues affecting women veterans. According to information from its website, the commission serves as a liaison between women veterans and the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical and Regional Office Center at Togus. Commission members are appointed to serve three-year terms of office by the Adjutant General.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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