Active Heroes opening community center
Thousands of vehicles traveling Bardstown Road — many of them with military license plates — pass a veterans community center's "Coming Soon" sign daily.
The center, opening Feb. 27, is a new idea for Louisville. While it maintains the supportive characteristics of the traditional veterans post, it rids the bar area in favor of exercise classes and budgeting seminars and carries the goal of connecting veterans and their families to any service they need, said Troy Yocum, president of nonprofit Active Heroes.
"This center is truly an opportunity to help thousands of veterans in many different ways and have a place where they can come together and share their experiences with others under a roof that is not a bar, a lodge," Yocum said. "I truly believe that there will always be those places that veterans go to, but there has to be now alternatives."
The idea for the center stemmed from the nonprofit's efforts to build a free veterans retreat in Bullitt County that will eventually include a welcome center, camping cabins and a 10-acre lake.
Active Heroes' mission is to lower suicide rates among veterans, and the retreat will be a quiet space where veterans can heal and interact with other military members, Yocum said.
Active Heroes previously used a $250,000 Home Depot grant to buy 144 acres for the retreat, located on Ridgeview Drive off of Cedar Grove Road, and is now attempting to raise money to put in roads and utilities, Yocum said. So far, the nonprofit has raised about $400,000.
Yocum said expenses for the retreat have risen higher than initially expected, but the nonprofit's purpose has caught the attention of other local charities and organizations who have offered assistance.
With the new center, Active Heroes will be able to use community partnerships to start offer services sooner from free monthly crossfit classes to 10 rotating seminars by Sullivan University, Yocum said.
"We knew that building the welcome center at the retreat is probably a few years away," said Yocum, who previously operated Active Heroes out of an 800-square-foot office in Hillview. "But we were growing and have the ability to help so many more veterans that that little office wasn't going to work. So we decided basically to move out of that and search for a new place where we could also create our first, in a sense, welcome center for the retreat."
The community center, 8701 Old Bardstown Rd., is double the size of the Hillview office, with two conference rooms, a large meeting room and a store to sell Active Heroes merchandise — with proceeds going toward providing free programs.
Military members and their families will be able to stop by the center to ask questions or hang out during regular hours or can attend scheduled events, such as resume-building courses and movie nights.
Yocum said the events will change as the nonprofit discovers what veterans like and don't like.
The community center is not meant to replace other veterans services in Louisville, but to instead connect military members to what's out there, Yocum said.
"I would say there is a lot of organizations that help veterans and military families, especially now," Yocum said. "Maybe five years ago, I didn't see that so much in our town. I see a great amount of support, but I also see the need for there to be some great way to connect the families that's just not there."
Reach reporter Bailey Loosemore at (502) 582-4646. Follow her on Twitter at @bloosemore.
ACTIVE HEROES COMMUNITY CENTER
What: The center will provide services and activities for military members and their families, from yoga classes to budgeting seminars.
When: A grand opening will take place at 11 a.m. Feb. 27. Regular hours will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, with scheduled events on Saturdays.
Where: 8701 Old Bardstown Road
More info: Visit www.activeheroes.org.