With its main mission accomplished, the Peachtree Corners Veterans Monument Association recently voted to change its name.

“We built the monument between 2015 and 2019, so our first Veterans Day ceremony held at the monument was in 2019,” said Robert Ballagh, past president of the Peachtree Corners Veterans Monument Association.

With the structure in place, the volunteers who make up the organization voted to focus more on the mission and dropped the word “monument.” It is now the Peachtree Corners Veterans Association. 

“We want to form a broader community awareness in Peachtree Corners and provide a place for veterans to come in and seek assistance in getting the right kind of assistance,” said Ballagh. “We’re not going to replicate [existing services]. There are a lot of things that we can do for veterans who want to do get actively involved with those.”

Another big step has been putting a new leader in place.

“We invited Chris Lindenau to join the board and then to become our executive director, and he accepted,” said Ballagh.

Lindenau is CEO of Fusus, a company known in law enforcement and public safety circles for its leading-edge RealTime Crime Center In The Cloud (RTC3) platform. A 2020 member of Atlanta Inno’s “50 on Fire,” Fusus has been recognized as among the hottest new companies in the Atlanta area.

“Bob approached me with [board member] Tiffany Grave de Peralta about taking over,” said Lindenau.

He was impressed with what they’d accomplished so far — a beautiful monument to commemorate the brave men and women in military service. 

“They were such good stewards of that program …that the desire to grow the organization and perhaps bring a new perspective and strengthen the association’s awareness in the community [appealed to me],” he said. “But I also wanted to take a fresh look at things like the mission, which we’ve recently rewritten.”

New mission with focus on veterans’ services

It’s a broader umbrella with some realistic goals, given the size of the organization — and the fact that burnout can make it necessary to focus on specifics instead of trying to be everything to everybody, Lindenau added.

“I’m humbled that they would be interested in having me take over the organization,” said Lindenau.

But he really wanted to focus on next steps. He wanted to make sure that now that the monument has been finished, the focal point would be the veterans themselves.

“We all just kind of had a realization …that the objective [of building the monument] has been achieved and yet the broader objective of reaching out to the veteran community and to the larger Peachtree Corners community that appreciates the veterans [was next],” he said.

With that, the association vowed to align efforts towards something to honor and support the existing veteran community and Peachtree Corners and their families. “So we felt justified in the creation of a [new] mission statement,” Lindenau added.

Now with new marching orders, the renamed organization will continue its expanded mission of serving veterans and the community.

Supports for the veteran community

In the short time that Lindenau has come aboard, the board has decided on two areas as the cornerstones.

• Philanthropy: Through the sale of pavers and some engraving at the monument, the organization has banked a tidy sum. It is looking at providing post-secondary education funds for children of veterans, whether at a four-year college, technical school an advanced learning program or something in between. 

• Socialization: With so many veterans in the community, it’s important to bring them together on a regular basis. Even though special events like Veterans Day and Memorial Day are imperative, the other 363 days of the year are important as well.

“We’re thinking about holding another event …where we can spend some time with veterans,” said Lindenau. “Obviously, the challenge is always to identify who are the veterans in the community. …But it’s probably a good time for us to get the word back out to the veteran community that we’re thinking about holding an event so that they can come in, we can hear their opinions, obviously, through that process, identify who’s in the area and then provide a forum to listen and really solicit feedback.”

When all is said and done, the ultimate goal is to find out what issues matter the most to the veterans and support them. As a veteran himself, Lindenau understands the importance of transitioning back into civilian life.

“We’ve identified a handful of things that are always challenges for veterans, like the transition from service to the private sector,” he said. “And many, many folks, like myself, have made that transition and are interested and eager to help, because candidly, our companies can benefit from the kind of leadership and teamwork characteristics that people from the service espouse. So it’s actually a win-win, in that regard.”

Peachtree Corners Veterans Association mission statement

The Peachtree Corners Veterans Association will strive to build relationships on local veterans, while also honoring their service and contributions to our nation and community.

Veterans Day event

This year, there are a few changes to the Veterans Day festivities. Of course, it will be at the monument and, as usual, the association rotates the principal speaker and supporting roles. 

“We like to do two ceremonies a year — Veterans Day and Memorial Day — and we like to involve the community in both of those ceremonies,” said Ballagh. “For Veterans Day, because it’s during the school year, we’ve always had a band. And we always have the Norcross High School Junior ROTC participate in the ceremony.”

This year, however, the Wesleyan School Band will perform, but once again the Norcross Junior ROTC will participate as ushers and with a color guard.

Because it’s a sacred ceremony, there will be an invocation. This year it will be performed by Father Charles Byrd, pastor of Mary Our Queen Catholic Church.

The actual ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. sharp with Peachtree Corners Director of Communications Louis Svehla as master of ceremonies. The new director of the newly named Peachtree Corners Veterans Association, Chris Lindenau, will be the keynote speaker. 

In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will be moved indoors to Christ the King Episcopal Church. 

New this year, there will be access to services that veterans can tap into, said Ballagh. 

“Sometimes all you need is somebody to point you in the right direction,” he explained. “Ora Douglass approached the city with adding these services and vendors and I think it dovetails nicely with the event.” 

Veterans Day Community Health Fair

Saturday, November 11, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Town Center Veterans Monument

3200 Peachtree Corners Blvd., Peachtree Corners

The health fair will include immunizations, health screenings, blood pressure checks, AIDS/HIV screenings, veterans’ benefits, mental health information and giveaway items.