Clay County veterans non-profit to hold open house
The event, scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, welcomes the public to tour transitional housing under construction for veterans healing from trauma, PTSD or other issues related to military service.
The tour will also include visits to the equine barn and aquaponics facility.
When guests arrive, they will begin their tour at the five veterans houses located at 56253 Alabama 49, four miles south of Lineville.
'We are pretty excited about the open house,' said Saucier. 'A lot of people have been hearing our story. We have shared our mission with many organizations over the last few months, including Auburn University, Jacksonville State University, the Central Alabama Veterans Collaborative and the House Standing Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs.'
The couple has invited members of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs, local legislators, Clay County commissioners and members of several Anniston-area civic and veterans organizations.
During the tour, Saucier hopes to highlight the benefits of horse-and-human bonding through Equine Empowered Therapy. Flounders will be on-site to lead tours of the homes.
Flounders and Saucier said they still need help before veterans can begin living on the property.
'We are still doing everything we can to get volunteers to complete this phase,' Flounders said.
The couple is hopeful the public will see the progress that has been made over the six years since they purchased the land.
Visitors will also see the aquaponics project, which includes specialized tanks for fish that provide nutrients to support plant growth. A grant from the Coosa Valley Resource Conservation and Development Council made the project possible. The greenhouse will grow various green and red vegetables once the system is fully operational. Potatoes and onions have already been planted in the greenhouse soil.
The couple encourages the public to visit https://sssvp.org to learn more about SSSVP's mission and upcoming events during May, which is Mental Health Month. As part of the month's activities, the equine project will participate in 'Horses for Mental Health: As Seen Through Horses.' The program includes the premiere of the film Rescued Hearts. Locations for the May 10 screening will be announced.
The couple's work is personal. Flounders, who served in both the Navy and Army from 1983 to 2014 and was deployed in four military operations, suffers from PTSD. He found peace through an equine therapy program after retirement.
For Saucier, the mission honors her father, Edward James Halbach, a World War II Navy veteran who passed away as the couple began envisioning a transitional village for veterans. An inheritance from Halbach allowed them to purchase 16 acres for the six homes and a communal kitchen.
'I believe my father is looking down on us with great pride in how Dave and I have incorporated these values into our mission at SSSVP,' Saucier said.
For more information or to schedule a visit, contact Dave at 860-861-6747 or email dave@sssvp.org.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
3 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
Liberated by the Smiling Giants
I lived in China in the mid-1980s, when it was a much different country. There were no high-rises, few cars and lots of bikes, and people still wore Mao jackets. The small apartment I lived in had about two minutes of hot water at a time, so once in a while I went to a Western hotel where I would sit in the sauna, take a long shower, and have dinner in the coffee shop. One night in 1986 there was another man sitting on the sauna bench—a businessman from the Netherlands, passing through Beijing. He had been born in Asia, in the Dutch East Indies, today's Indonesia. Judging his age, I asked what happened to him during World War II.
Axios
3 hours ago
- Axios
Long-lost library book returned to San Antonio 82 years late — from Oregon
When one long-lost copy of "Your Child, His Family and Friends" was last checked out from the San Antonio Public Library, San Antonians were on the homefront of World War II, the movie adaptation of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" had just premiered, and fewer than 500,000 people lived here. The latest: In June, the wandering book finally returned home — 82 years later — courtesy of an Oregon family, the library said in a news release Thursday. Catch up quick: The library received an unmarked package from Oregon containing the well-worn parenting book by Frances Bruce Strain, as well as a note. The sender, who did not include a name, explained they discovered it while sorting through their late father's belongings. The sender believes their grandmother checked it out when their father was 11 years old but never returned it after she was transferred to work at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. What they're saying:"I hope there is no late fee for it because Grandma won't be able to pay for it anymore," the note read, according to the library. The book was due July 30, 1943. By the numbers: In 1943, late fees were 3 cents a day. Returned on June 1, 2025, the book would be 29,892 days late — a $896.76 tab, assuming the rate never changed.
UPI
11 hours ago
- UPI
Japanese tea ceremony master Sen Genshitsu dies at 102
Japanese tea ceremony grand master Sen Genshitsu died at the age of 102. File Photo by Wallace Woon/EPA Aug. 14 (UPI) -- A grand master of Ursanke, a Japanese tea ceremony school, Sen Genshitsu died on Thursday. He was 102 years old. Genshitsu became the grand master in 1964 and received the Japanese Order of Culture in 1997 for his modernization of the traditional tea ceremony. His philosophy was "peacefulness through a bowl of tea" which he shared as he traveled overseas to promote Japanese culture at universities across the world. Genshitsu was recruited into the Japanese Navy during World War II to be a kamikaze pilot. He passed on the title of grandmaster to his son in 2002. Notable deaths of 2025 Astronaut Jim Lovell, commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission to the moon, died August 8, 2025, in Illinois, his family announced. He was 97. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo
