Copyright WEAU
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - A day filled with smiles for local veterans. Chippewa Valley Technical College hosted the ninth annual ‘Give Vets a Smile’ event Saturday, offering free services for American heroes. CVTC instructor, Dawn Barone said “This is the least that we could do after everything that they’ve done for us.” Which was a common message throughout the event, giving veterans more reasons to smile. One veteran, Mike Sheehan said “For veterans like me, it’s like it’s free care. I love it. I never thought that after I retired from military service that I would receive care like this.” Sheehan served in the U.S. Navy and National Guard for 22 years. He said he was pretty excited for the pamper treatment offered. “It’s like there’s coffee and such here afterwards, so you practically get a breakfast after a teeth cleaning. It’s actually pretty good,” he said. Also highlighting that medical treatment is pretty different from back in the day. “Medical care has changed quite a bit now. I’m not sure how long CVTC has been doing this dental clinic, but to my knowledge if I needed anything done I would’ve had to go to Minneapolis,” he said. Thankfully in Eau Claire, vets got the best help from students in different career paths. Nursing student McKenna Wright said they offered “massage, hair, dental of course, we’re doing vitals. So that kind of allows everyone to do everything.” Barone said they also provided “education on respiratory disorders, or diagnosis. Nursing students are providing education on medication planning as well.” Going above and beyond to show veterans their appreciation, Wright said “I mean they do so much for us so just giving back to them, I’ve already heard a ton of people today be like ‘well thank you for being here’. And I’m like, ‘no thank you for letting me be here’.” Barone said “We just want to thank the veterans for everything that they do for us, because our freedoms that we have are because of them. We have our freedom of education, here at CVTC we have our freedom to practice medicine the way that we do in our programs and we have that because of them.” With liberty and knowledge for all.
