Jacksonville, Fl \u2014 Jacksonville\u2019s Five Star Veterans Center is still mourning the loss of its founding CEO Colonel Len Loving, who passed away earlier this month following a valiant battle with cancer. <\/p>\n
Colonel Loving founded the nonprofit in 2012 with a vision to help veterans overcome challenges like addiction, homelessness, and PTST. <\/p>\n
Today, up to 40 veterans can reside at Five Star and participate in programs to help them reenter the workforce, and achieve a sustainable, independent life. <\/p>\n
John Bear is the current CEO, and still feels the loss weeks after the passing of Colonel Loving. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe gave me the privilege, gave me the honor to take over Five Star Veterans Center and continue on with his legacy so I am truly blessed to be able to have this position and the privilege to take care of these veterans,\u201d said Bear.<\/p>\n
Bear says the need is only growing, and they\u2019re facing a serious funding gap given the loss of state funding. <\/p>\n
Five Star Veterans Center didn\u2019t secure the funding in Fiscal Year 2026. <\/p>\n
The nonprofit does have more than $1 million in operational grants lined up to sustain its work, but those funds don\u2019t take effect until after October 1. <\/p>\n
Bear says they\u2019re working diligently to fill gap between when funding arrives and when costs come due. <\/p>\n
One way you can help is by supporting Friday\u2019s pre-Fourth of July benefit concert and BBQ. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe big thing is to attract as many people out here, to gain interest in the center, and to encourage people to get involved and helping us make a difference for their veterans,\u201d Bear said.<\/p>\n
There are other ways to support through the year<\/a> by volunteering time or talent, or donating funds. <\/p>\n \u25b6 Listen to Jacksonville\u2019s Morning News Interviews<\/a><\/p>\n [\u00a0Read more local news from WOKV<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and traffic app. And click here<\/a> to subscribe to our daily 3 Big Things newsletter.<\/p>\n \u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville, Fl \u2014 Jacksonville\u2019s Five Star Veterans Center is still mourning the loss of its founding CEO Colonel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[132279,796,132280,794,132282,116147,28,116,118,117,132281,795,349,132285,132284,132283],"class_list":["post-318289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-5-star-veterans-center","tag-796","tag-colonel-len-loving","tag-duval","tag-five-star-veteran-center","tag-five-star-veterans-center","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-john-bear","tag-ne-florida","tag-northeast-florida","tag-pre-fourth-of-july-benefit-concert-and-bbq","tag-veterans-care","tag-veterans-in-jacksonville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}