Clarkston Cares for Military Families website

Amazing things happen in Clarkston and Independence Township. A group of citizens concerned about the military families living in the community have banded together to provide support.

Clarkston Cares was founded by Dr. Tom Stone, who was concerned about the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome on veterans returning from the Gulf and Iraq Wars.

Currently, Clarkston Cares has evolved as a community mechanism to help the veteran and their families during their loved one's deployment.

The website for Clarkston Cares follows http://clarkstoncares.org/index.htm.

In today's military, there are two different kind of soldiers, the regular military family that is a full time soldier and his or her family with access to military support at a local base, such as Selfridge Air Base.

Many of today's soldiers come from the state's National Guard. National Guard soldiers and their families do not enjoy the support given regular military personnel.

Schools in communities like Clarkston have a few students in classes whose parents are deployed versus schools on large military bases where a large number of students understand in their own way, the work their parents do. A son or daughter of a deployed Naitoanl Guard soldier may be the only child in their classroom with a parent in the military.

Health care and counseling is not as easily available to National Guard personnel as the regular military men and women. Recently, in Fort Lewis near Tacoma Washington, Congressman Kurt Shrader found that the WarriorTransition unit created to support soldiers returning with health issues treated National Guard soldiers differently than regular Army soldiers.

Back to the Community Cares organization in Independence Township and Clarkston, community members are available to help with referrals to tradesmens, service providers and professionals. Links are made to doctors, tutors, and counselors for military families. Mentors and service organizatios are available to support the soldier and military families.

Clarkston resident Stone, said about 24 residents have met over the last year to create the support network and be available for the military men and women as well as their families.

One of the members is Navy Captain Bart Clark, retired, who created the website for families to peruse to find the appropriate support.

Community ingenuity and concerned citizens can do amazing things.

Grocery Store Survey

Over 2,000 people had opinions on which grocery store they would like to have in the White Lake Commons shopping center at the corner of Dixie Highway and White Lake Road, according to Penny Shanks, Executive Director of the Clarkston Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce had an online survey for residents to answer questions about a grocery store to replace Farmer Jacks. Shanks told the Independence Township Board of Trustees, at their June 1st meeting. Whole Foods was the most popular choice for a new store of residents answering the online survey gaining almost 42 percent of the votes. Trader Joe's, Nino Salvaggio's, and Papa Joe's food stores each received approximately 22 percent of the votes followed by VGs at 15 percent and HIllers at 12 percent.

The shopping center has been without a grocery store since 2007 when Farmer Jack's closed their southeast Michigan stores.

Residents said it was very important to have another grocery store in Clarkston and gave reasons such as competition, increased selection and quality, convenience, healthier choices and more organic foods, not having to drive so far for increased selections and the need for more vegetarian, gluten-free and whole food options.

The questionnaire asked about having a gas station as part of the grocery store and almost 50 percent of the respondents said it was not important.

The Chamber made a presentation to VGs which is part of the Spartan stores in Grand Rapids with the information.

Shanks told the board, that the grocery stores need better demographics about the Clarkston area. They want to know where people work, how far do they travel to work, and education levels. "Whole Foods doesn't see Clarkston as having the right demographics," according to Shanks. She told the board that the headquarters personnel of the grocery stores read the headlines and see southeast Michigan on the downturn by out of state companies.

Shanks shared that Clarkston is viewed as a town with many Chrysler employees. According to Shanks, prior to 2009, Chrysler had 12,000 employees working at the headquarters building, in November 2009 that number had shrunk to 6,000 and two weeks ago the number was back to 10,000 employees in the building. Southeast Michigan may be doing better than the national headlines according to Shanks.

Keep tuned to Inside Independence and share your thoughts about the needs for businesses in Clarkston at Inside Independence.