Non-profit for military vets in need of financial help

(FOX 2) - Stacia Miller knows firsthand about the lack of quality care for veterans, having once broken her back serving in the Navy.

A visit by Miller to the VA hospital in 2011 motivated her to take action.

"I went to the VA, I asked them to run some tests," she said. "They ran some tests, they injured me - cracked some ribs, came out of the test with two black eyes. I went, I'm pretty bold, pretty assertive, that this is happening to people who are not. So I went to law school."

Miller went to law school to fight for veterans, whose voices were not being heard. In 2015, while in school, she also started the Sailor Soldier Airman and Marine Access Center in Mount Clemens. 

The organization works tirelessly to help hundreds of veterans and their families with food, clothing, utilities and housing. Volunteers also provide assistance with job training and placement.

Miller also takes on their legal issues - all of this at no charge.

"I think our goal is to take every individual who is broken, and do whatever we can to fix them and send them back out into the world," she said.

Like Tara Evans' husband Larry, who served several tours in the Middle East. Evans says when he came home he was a different man - physically and emotionally - and couldn't get the proper care to address his medical needs.

"It is huge, I have sat there waiting for my husband to come out of appointments and watched grown men crying, not knowing what to do," Evans said. "We were like that. But at least we have her now, she is backing them up, telling us what to do, how to do it, where to go. It's a lot."

But sadly the Veterans Access Center Services are in jeopardy. Although no one who works there gets paid, Miller says it takes about a thousand dollars a month to pay for the legal fees and keep the doors open.
 
Miller, who has planned a September poker run to raise money, says any donation is appreciated.

"We have got these folks that have fought for our freedoms for us to do what we are doing today," she said. "And there is no one standing up for them. I have to - don't know what to say - somebody has to. I'm well suited for it."

To donate: www.ssamac.org and for more information: www.warriors4warriors.com