Tioga County Veterans’ Agency to offer free county fair tickets to Veterans

[By Matt Freeze]

After recent approval from the county Legislature, the Tioga County Veterans Service Agency will give out 224 free county fair tickets to veterans and their families.

Earlier in the week, legislators unanimously approved a resolution to exceed the normal $150 per-event spending limit and authorized spending $3,000 on the tickets.

VSA Director Dennis Mullen said he always appreciates how supportive the Legislature is of the county’s veteran community.

“The fair gave us a dollar off each ticket, and then they gave us 24 (for free),” Mullen said. “We’ll probably get the tickets the first week in August.”

The Tioga County Fair kicks off Aug. 11 and runs through Aug. 15.

Mullen said they will announce on their Facebook page when they have the tickets in hand.

Veterans, and widows of veterans, qualify for the free tickets, he said, adding that proof of service is required—either on a driver’s license or a DD214 discharge form.

“Or, sometimes we know them already; we know quite a few vets,” he said. “We’re limiting it to four per family this year.”

Mullen said when they first gave out free fair tickets last year, some people took six or seven tickets, and some of those weren’t used.

“I’m not saying there aren’t families that size, but we want to help as many families as we can,” he said. “It’s one of our outreach programs, where we’re trying to get veterans to interact socially within the community, and we get to get out there into a family thing.”

It’s one of the things the VSA uses PFC Joseph Dwyer Grant Funds for, he said. That program was enacted in memory of Dwyer, a Suffolk County native and Iraq war veteran who died in 2008 at the age of 31.

“Things are tough for a lot of people—gas is through the roof, and groceries cost more,” Mullen said. “There’s an elderly vet and his wife who are grandparents with custody of their two grandkids because of drug addiction issues. She said, ‘If it wasn’t for you, these kids would have done nothing all summer.’”

Mullen said one would’ve thought they were on a one-week, all-expenses-paid trip to Disney World.

“That’s all they got to do all summer—go to the fair one day,” he said. “She (said), ‘We’ve not been able to afford to do it.’ That’s why we do it.”

Mullen said he and his office will have a table at the fair each day, and will likely be there from noon to about 6 or 7 p.m.

Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis, and can only be picked up at the VSA office in the county office building at 56 Main St. in Owego.

(Matt Freeze is a senior writer with The Morning Times.)