Veterans Pancake Breakfast brings veterans together, introduces new services they can draw on.

It's well known locally that Lincoln counts a larger than usual number of veterans among its residents, but it's not always obvious, even to other veterans, who they are.

Finding a way to let veterans connect with one another was at the heart of the March 29 Veterans Meet and Greet Pancake Breakfast sponsored by Lincoln American Legion Post 9.

Nearly 50 veterans and family members turned out for the free pancake breakfast, which was seen as a good turnout, particularly for a weekday morning.

"A lot of people don't realize how many veterans are in the community, so they start seeing people and they're like 'oh, I didn't know he was a veteran,'" said Eric Gool, the Post 9 service officer and an employee of Veterans, Inc., a veteran service nonprofit that began in New England but expanded to Montana and the Dakotas in 2023.

The need for veterans to connect with and support one another was highlighted recently in the wake of a pair of veteran suicides in the Lincoln area.

"The biggest thing for doing this was the mental health," Gool explained "We didn't want to advertise it 'hey come down for suicide prevention,' so we did the meet and greets so veterans could come and see there are other veterans in the community."

As a state, Montana is known for having one of the highest veteran populations per capita in the nation, and Gool estimates there are about 160 veterans living full time in the Blackfoot Valley from Helmville and Ovando to Lincoln. But that number doesn't include everyone. "We're at about 60 percent of residents who are veterans or tied to a veteran. We're one of the higher populations."

More than a free meal, the event also served as a way to bring different veteran services to Lincoln. "We want to get Lincoln pumping again. There are so many veterans up here. Montana is such a huge Veterans state," said Julie Phillips, a housing coordinator with Veterans, Inc. "So, we want to come up here and help build the veterans community and events. This is kind of a kickoff to get that started."

Although Post 9 sponsored the breakfast, Gool coordinated many of the services that took part through Veterans Association of Freedoms Path, an association he created at Fort Harrison to help house veterans when he was himself homeless.

Noticeable among those services was the Southwest Food Pantry for Veterans out of Deer Lodge, which coordinates with the Veterans Meat Locker out of Billings. The Food Pantry brought in a wide array of food to the breakfast that was free to local veterans and their families. "They started helping the families there out of Deer Lodge and the need kept growing and started expanding," Gool said. "We ran into them at the Legion (District meeting in Lincoln) and they said they'd come up for the event to expand their coverage. The good thing is they're getting the food and resources that can help veterans and their families."

Legionnaire Mark Dawkins, who helped with the event, said he thinks the next event will see better turnout, although it may evolve into a luncheon or dinner. Although he expects there will be an annual event on March 29 for Vietnam Veterans Day, there seemed to be support for eventually making it a monthly event that includes services like the Veteran's Food Pantry.

Gool said it will be based on participation. "If the community needs it, we'll do it. We really want to be community driven, depending on what the community needs. Not us doing stuff for us, but what we can do for the community."