Veterans Leave Smiling : Second Stand Down Draws Twice as Many Seeking Help

On his third day of rest, Lorenzo Ravize gathered his things and boarded a bus headed back to the streets of west Ventura. That destination was the only certain thing in an uncertain future.

Since Friday, the 50-year-old homeless veteran had eaten three meals a day and slept with a measure of security not usually afforded those who live on the streets. He collected a new wardrobe and some free legal help during a three-day relief effort aimed at lifting up down-and-out vets.

On Sunday, the Ventura man was still broke and headed back to the doorways and empty buildings that have been his home for the past three years. But for the first time in a long while, he was also filled with hope.

“I’m really going to try to turn things around,” said Ravize, an ex-soldier who has been homeless in Ventura for the past three years. “You can only spend so much time doing nothing.”

Stand Down 1994 drew 181 veterans from across Ventura County, more than twice the number of men and women who took part in the inaugural event last year. For three days, in a tent city put up at the Ventura College football field, homeless veterans saw doctors, lawyers and a host of other care-givers.

The long-term success of the program is hard to measure, event organizers say. All they know for sure is that some veterans get help.

“All I can say is that the veterans came in with a lot of stress in their faces and they are leaving with smiles,” said Claire Hope, founder of the Ventura County event. “Some get a new lease on life. And those not helped this year can come back again next year.”

Hope said that next year she plans to concentrate recruitment efforts on the cities of Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark. Only one homeless veteran came from the east county this year.

Navy veteran Gordon Amundsen of Simi Valley took advantage of the services, coming away with a new set of clothes and shoes, a medical exam and full stomach.

Vietnam veteran Eugene Morales also got the help he was looking for.

Steadying himself on a metal cane, the decorated war veteran lifted his upper lip to show bare gums. Dentists at Stand Down promised to fit him with dental plates.

Morales was one of about half a dozen men who took advantage of an “open mike” session Saturday night before the nightly USO show kicked off.

“You are like my brothers,” he told his fellow veterans. “I’m very proud to have served my country, and I will defend you and America for the rest of my life, as long as I live.”

On Sunday morning, veterans hurried to squeeze in their final benefits. Some got haircuts. Others got their eyes examined.

In a canvas tent marked “Counseling,” war-hardened veterans eagerly stood in line to experience Toni Charbonneau’s holistic healing techniques. Her practice involves channeling energy to heal and relax her patients.

“I just decided the healing really needed to get out there,” Charbonneau said. “I’m just doing it whatever way I can.”

Stand Down 1994 ended Sunday during a ceremony in which the veterans stood at attention, saluting a color guard retiring the United States flag that had been flying over the football field since Friday.

Veterans and volunteers then joined hands and formed a large circle as a patriotic song floated out over the loudspeakers.

When the song ended, the veterans collected their belongings. New clothes and blankets were slipped into plastic bags. They picked up oranges and chips on their out of the gate.

“It was a wonderful deal,” said 67-year-old Virgil Malicoat of Oxnard, a veteran of three wars. “They treated us like real men.”