Yellow Ribbon Summit

Stillwater City Councilman Mike Polehna has been leading the charge for the city. He says the effort has come out of personal experience.

Becoming a Yellow Ribbon City involves a city showing the National Guard and state of Minnesota that it has the structures in place in different parts of the community to support the families of the deployed and troops that are returning.

The plan brings together local politicians, businesses, houses of faith, health care facilities, schools, police and veterans organizations so that they are all on the same page, Polehna said.

Each arm takes on different issues. For example, businesses are encouraged to give veterans job opportunities, and if possible, discounts to the families of deployed troops. Police are trained on issues returning veterans might face or reintegrating them into the police force.

The action plan should be green lighted by the National Guard soon and then sent to Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who can sign a proclamation to make the Yellow Ribbon designation official. A ceremony for the proclamations of Washington County, Stillwater, Woodbury and Hugo has been tentatively set for Jan. 5.

The idea behind building these networks is that National Guard soldiers, and others, don't really have a big active duty base in the area, said Officer Candidate Melanie Nelson, spokeswoman for Beyond the Yellow Ribbon. While Fort Snelling provides just a handful of services, she said it isn't like most of the other active working bases around the country.

The Yellow Ribbon Network can help to provide many of those services right in the community, Nelson said.

"From a soldier's standpoint, there's nothing better than knowing when you are deployed the amount of support you have back home," he said. "And there is piece of mind knowing that your loved ones back home are being taken care of by the community."

Norton, who works in both deployment cycle support and community outreach for Beyond the Yellow Ribbon with the Minnesota National Guard, has been helping Stillwater get its Yellow Ribbon designation.

"A lot of the soldiers kind of feel like they are alone when they come home, because there is no one else around that knows what they are going through," he said. "Through this program and through Stillwater being a Yellow Ribbon City, (community members) are receiving training that will help them understand what a solider is going through."

Norton said having Stillwater get the designation will be a good show of support for those soldiers.