For decades, the Veterans Guest House has been a home away from home for veterans and their families. Many have been coming here for years.
"I couldn't afford a motel," said veteran Kevin Averill. "I'd likely be sleeping in my truck, so yeah, it's a blessing."
The Veterans Guest House (VGH) is a place to stay for any veteran traveling for medical reasons.
"You just need to be here for a medical appointment, whether that's the VA or other centers in town," said Veterans Guest House CEO Sylvia DuBeau, "and that's not just for doctor visits- its also if you're here to see your dentist, for vision. If people call us, we can sort out the details and let them know if they qualify or not; they've got nothing to lose."
Thanks to a generous community, veterans don't pay a dime for room and board at VGH.
"It's awesome," Averill said. "They treat you good, feed you good."
Remodeling and expansion projects over the years mean there's plenty of room right now. The staff says they're only reaching a fraction of the veterans who can take advantage of the services here.
"We're encouraging people to take advantage because first off, we recognize that a lot of people are struggling right now with cost of gas, cost of hotel rooms," DuBeau said. "But the other part of that is we are 100% philanthropically funded. The Reno-Sparks community is incredibly generous and they want to make sure that our veterans and their families are healthy."
You can find out more about the services offered at the Veterans Guest House at https://www.veteransguesthouse.org/.
