Sam Center Oh

Honoring Active Service Members, Veterans and their Widows(ers). Serving Area Military & Veterans is a group of veteran supporters that have come together to be the conduit of the community's love for our veterans. We utilize the community to discover needs and find solutions. The SAM (Serving Area Military, Veterans & Widows/ers) Center was founded in March of 2015 to assist local heroes and their families with resources for any needs that would arise. The SAM Center collaborates with other community agencies to ensure programs are not being duplicated, while the gap in assistance is being filled. The SAM Center operates a free commissary/food pantry for our veterans, service members and their widows/widowers to ensure that their basic needs are being met. Our heroes can utilize our food pantry two times a month to help meet their personal needs on us at no charge to them. In addition to the commissary, the SAM Center offers lodging kits to our heroes moving into permanent housing from a homeless status. The SAM Center also works as an informational resource center to help connect the military and its veterans to local programs, services, organizations, and agencies that offer VA benefits, PTSD information and counseling services. Our staff can help direct the military and its veterans to programs that meet their needs and provide the appropriate contact information. The SAM Center offers various therapy programs free of charge to service members, veterans and their widows. These programs include: Guitar Therapy, Soul Talk Bible Study, Hatha Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Paddle Board Yoga, and Veteran;Run running program. The SAM Center hosts the yearly Veterans' Resource and Assistance Fair assisting over 1300 veterans and widows to date. For many years, we have been a volunteer led organization that looks to provide solutions instead of handouts. During the Fall of 2021, the Board of Directors hired an Executive Director to lead the organization.