A Very Casual Conversation About Just 7 Acres Of History In Tappan !

This is not intended to be a scholarly read, just a story of what was once farm land in Orangetown and is now 7 sacred acres. It's not a new story but a fresh look.

We begin 1943 when our beloved country chose Orangetown to host what became the world's largest military Port of Embarkation.

On more than 2,000+ Orangetown acres, more than 1.3 million mostly young people left their homes and families to face death in a foreign continent. The place from which they left willingly was named Camp Shanks, "Last Stop USA". Almost everyone in Rockland knows about that.

70% of those young people waded into France on D-Day, many died right there and never came home, not even to be buried.

I suspect Orangetown was chosen in part because it was a better choice than the big cities of New York and New Jersey, which were next to the seaports that housed the giant ships which would carry our military across the Atlantic Ocean to the British Isles of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales. There our future Heroes would prepared mostly for D-Day.

Orangetown was not nearly populated as the cities and they had the Erie Railroad and Hudson River to easily move the troops to the ports.

Fast forward to the war's ending and the Federal Government returning the property to Orangetown and some retained for uses, including veteran housing. This is ironic considering today. It seems to me there were always military people hanging around.

Now, to see the big picture, go back a few years to when 5 gentlemen [including me] involved in Rockland County's services for our mentally ill decided in 1982 to create a not-for-profit 501[c]3 charity to create "special needs" [our mentally ill] community homes. We named it Loeb House and now it provides 186 beds for "special need" folks with a diagnosis of mental illness. It is the biggest such MH residential program in the County.

It was so successful and professional that a new group[including me] created another charity for the homeless in 1997. Its name is Joseph's Home, named after my older Brother. It included two programs for veterans among 156 beds, which were closed down by choice to reach in search of more models of higher quality.

Before you knew it, 7 others [including me], created another Charity, "Rockland Homes For Heroes", to apply for 15 acres that were declared surplus by the Federal Government for homeless programs and lesser significant purposes. There were many many applicants because the property was free Federal property and no Town Building rules applied. We were awarded with a lease because we would not only serve homeless, but veteran homeless only, on sacred military ground, as we saw it. Much of the 15 acres housed the trains that took the "Camp Shankers" on the Erie Railroad in WW II and housed the Rockland headquarters of the Anti-Russia Nike Missile Defense Program of the 50s Cold War..

For compelling reasons the Federal Government and the Town of Orangetown and us decided to used half of the 15 acres to stop the destructive floods in the Spark Hill Creek and the Piermont marshes and the Federal Government gave us ownership, a Deed with some constraints. We cannot use the property for profitable commercial purposes or non-homeless purposes.

With God's Blessings our Federal Government not only gave us to use the property strictly for homeless veterans on land made sacred with an incredible military history but also financed the construction.

In 2009, we built the first 8 permanent affordable supportive apartments right on Western Highway using abandoned buildings of the Nike Missile Program Headquarters offices.

We were so successful, our State Government chose to finance 14 more homes just below the highway in what was the abandoned offices, class rooms, etc.

The homes turned out to be an inspirational creative usage of the setting and apartment design. Wee are now starting to interview our future residents, who will begin new lives in beautiful homes in a warm setting with military comrades of all branches of our military. It has become a national model.

The process began a four years journey that is now just one or two month to the fulfillment of our vision to save lives.

There are 67,494 homeless veteran in the USA and a veteran commits suicide every day of the year.

What we did isn't putting a dent into the sad crisis, but we have set an example. And we believe every life saved is worth the effort.

When I say WE, I mean our New York State Government agencies involved in the homeless world, who walked step by step with us through the mission + you, the people, our neighbors and businesses, who have blessed us with their approval, kindness and very generous contributions of money and much more + our Architects and Builders demonstrated their passion vis a our Veterans + even some youngsters who raised money for the Project

I close by saying Rockland County is an incredibly human care community and who live in it demonstrated how they feel about those who put on an American military uniform and served.

Visit our Web Site www.rocklandhomesforheroes.org

Think about contributing a few dollars using the web site to help us make sure that our homeless residents walk into their new home equipped with every thing we all have - everyting from spoon to a towel to sheets and blankets - everything !