DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa State Fair celebrated veterans at the fair Monday, and there is one Iowa nonprofit that are on the fairgrounds every day helping veterans.
5PointOp is a nonprofit that was founded by a 9-year veteran with a main goal of putting veterans into housing.
In addition to providing housing, the nonprofit has goals to redeploy skills and talents through training.
5PointOp accomplishes this by providing mental, professional and financial counseling.
"We're bringing folks in, we're getting them to talk through their problems, we're getting them help to get employment, we're getting them housing security. Just the basic needs met so that they can begin to flourish again. We feel that tenacity and that tenacity that they learned as a service member will help them succeed in the civilian life," Victor Rottinghaus said, founder of 5PointOp.
The organization aims to empowering veterans to feel like they still have a purpose after serving their country.
"They don't need a home for a night, they don't need cash, they need a home for forever and we're going to teach them to do that," Heather Mylan-Mains said, cofounder of 5PointOp.
By working with municipalities, they are able to use land that was deemed "unusable" and turn it into home for veterans.
The organization has been at the fair spreading their message, hearing from veterans and inviting people to learn more about veterans.
"What we've been doing here at the fair mostly is engaging people who have obvious connections to the military —whether they are wearing their hats or recognize the red, white and blue at our booth — and we're sharing the message just getting it out there. Even a Facebook like helps because that gets awareness built and the more people that get involved, the more we can get done," Rottinghaus said.
The nonprofit allows veterans to own a fourplex unit.
In a fourplex unit, the veterans are able to live in one unit and lease out the other three.
This allows them to remain financially independent.
"It's really important that we enable people to feel successful, so our mission and vision is to enable those veterans, to not only come home and be successful in a job but to be able to create communities that they can heal and grow and feel purposeful, and this is a company that is going to do that," Mylan-Mains said.
Hearing stories at the fair is what motivates them and keeps them going.
“One of the most touching things is a conversation with a young girl who didn’t know what a veteran was, and her mom explained what a veteran was. Then she said her grandpa was a veteran," Mylan-Mains said. "We are losing some of these stories and we want to make sure that we can capture them and appropriately honor those that serve,"
5PointOp will be at the fair all week and they encourage anybody to stop by.
You can also check out their Facebook page to get involved.