Featured Stories

For the past several years, patients who served our country in the Armed Forces have volunteered at Camp Alma, a place where veterans experiencing challenges like houselessness and addiction receive housing and support as they work to rebuild their lives. OSH patients have helped make the camp feel more like a community through their work on small construction and painting projects, landscaping, and even propagating plants that eventually end up as food in the camp kitchen.  

But patients’ visits provide something much deeper for them and the veterans who are residents at Camp Alma – healing.  

“The environment there is veteran-heavy and being there, I felt understood and loved,” said Michael Whitney, a U.S. Navy veteran, who recently visited Camp Alma for the first time. “There’s an emotional, even physiological connection there because you’re around people who have experienced similar pain, similar joy in the service of country. You’ve taken the same oath. I was able to make connections there with other veterans and that were especially healing and provided a level of normalcy that I do not get at the hospital.” 

Time and time again, Camp Alma staff have seen the transformative power of connecting veterans with each other – whether volunteer, resident or staff.  

“It’s all about connection,” said Jack Gartley, director of operations for Veterans Legacy, the nonprofit organization that runs Camp Alma. “When residents – or any veteran that visits Camp Alma – feel comfortable here, it opens up the opportunity to communicate and build those positive connections. When you sit together and have time to talk about the day, weather or whatever else, those are the special opportunities that are more important than painting a wall. Though those projects are important, the bonds they create are even more important.”  

Research also points to the positive impact community volunteering has on supporting patients in their recovery, particularly those experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), said Doug Wiltshire, an OSH vocational rehabilitation counselor who served in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper.  

At least 36 patients and 131 employees at OSH have voluntarily identified their veteran status, though it is likely the number of veterans receiving care or working at OSH is higher.   

Wiltshire co-leads trips to Camp Alma and a support group for veterans – both staff and patients – at OSH in Junction City. Earlier this year, the patients in the support group started a bottle recycling program and donate the collected bottles to Camp Alma. Both the support group and recycling program have helped build a community for veterans at OSH.  

The hospital’s partnerships – like the one with Camp Alma – provide patients opportunities to share or learn new skills through their volunteerism. In turn, they’re empowered by the experience, said Tom Anhalt, the administrator of the OSH Junction City campus and a U.S. Air Force veteran.  

“When our patients have opportunities to give back in the community, it gives them a sense of purpose and provides meaningful connections outside of the hospital,” Anhalt said.  

While at Camp Alma, OSH patients naturally step into familiar leadership roles – taking on projects and delegating tasks or some quickly start conversations that slowly delve deeper into what brought a resident to the camp.  

Surrounded by 360-degree views of forests and hills in rural Lane County and no cell phone reception, relaxation is the default setting at Camp Alma. In 2016 Veterans Legacy started reviving the site which had previously been a minimum-security camp run by Lane County and closed for eight years. Currently, 13 veterans are receiving support at the camp. Some residents may be referred by Veterans Court or other social service agencies. When residents arrive, they receive two dog tags with their name and date they arrived at camp. When they leave, they take one tag with them and the other is displayed on a wall of distinction – a reminder that they’re always also a part of Camp Alma, Gartley said.  

While at Camp Alma, residents are assigned a peer mentor, attend support groups and receive help with accessing benefits and community support to find permanent housing through partnerships with social service agencies. Most residents are there about six months.  

OSH patients have helped with several projects throughout the years. During a recent visit, Gartley chatted with the volunteers about the day’s needs – putting finishing touches in the camp’s recreation room and gathering the needed materials for the future construction of a storage closet. One volunteer asked Gartley a few questions about his preferences for one of the projects.   

“I’ll let you be the expert on that. I trust whatever you decide,” Gartley replied before the patient volunteering got back to the task at hand.  

That level of trust and autonomy has a major impact on patients who volunteer at Camp Alma, said James Heathman, a resource coordination specialist at OSH and a U.S. Army veteran. Heathman also co-leads the outings to Camp Alma and the weekly support group attended by veterans who are both staff and patients. Heathman has helped lead the veterans group since 2018, and outings previously were with a veterans organization in Bend until Camp Alma was ready for volunteers.  

“It’s important for me to make sure that these veterans are recognized for who they are, what they’ve done and that they get what they need to be successful when they leave here,” Heathman said.  

In his role as a resource coordinator, Heathman supports patients preparing to transition back into the community, and when working with patients who are veterans, he helps them navigate forms and documentation to access their VA benefits – if they haven’t already. He also works to connect them with groups in the community so they continue those positive connections that can support them and has encouraged former patients to continue volunteering at Camp Alma.  

“Out there at Camp Alma and here, we see our patients advocating for other veterans – their peers,” Heathman said. “They’re respectful of staff – both us and the camp and respect boundaries while they’re also trusted with opportunities to do projects. It’s therapeutic for them to be in that setting and be of service again, and I see them bring that back to this facility.”  

For Whitney, the visit was like a reset.  

“I didn’t realize how much it would affect me. For me, the visit was emotional because it was the first time I had been outside a facility after going to jail and getting GEI,” he said. “I got drenched in kindness and there was even a level of spirituality going on there being in nature. As a combat veteran, I was able to have conversations with other veterans and not feel like they wouldn’t understand.” 

Whitney said he’d like to see more veterans have the opportunity to visit the camp as part of their therapeutic treatment and more veteran-specific support available at the hospital. At OSH, clinicians offer patients a range of individual therapy services, including treatment for PTSD. Group therapies range from music, garden and art therapy to specialized topics like learning coping skills. More recently, a new anger and irritability management support group (AIMS) for veterans began meeting on the Junction City campus.  

During his recent visit to Camp Alma, Whitney met veterans like Warren Colbert who found his way to Camp Alma in 2022.  

“I have 32 years in the Army, and then I had a really bad night,” Colbert said.  

Camp Alma helped Colbert get back on his feet, and he now works at the camp as a peer mentor and camp coordinator. In his role, he also does street outreach to let houseless veterans know about the opportunities at Camp Alma. He said he has witnessed the positive impact of the camp’s partnership with the hospital.  

“There’s peace and quiet out here. Even just coming out to hang out with our guys – it makes a difference," Colbert said. “I think it might give them hope to see people trying to start over. It’s about healing and friendship.”