 The Minnesota Humanities Center awards veterans who have honorably served and do great things in the community. Haiti Clotter tonight shows us how one local veterans commitment to community service is helping others. He's a husband, author and veteran, a man with many titles. Now Wendell Affield is a Minnesota Humanities Center Veterans Voices Award recipient. I was very surprised. Affield receives an honor on Monday because of his community service that goes beyond the military. He spent four years in the United States Navy and was wounded during an ambush in 1968. I was maybe dealing with survivor guilt, but I found working with other people. I was kind of maybe a former redemption. His book Muddy Jungle Rivers tells memory stories from time spent in Vietnam. It eventually led Affield to leading a veterans writers group. Some of those veterans deal with post-traumatic stress disorder and writing helps. Trauma memories are like a collage bouncing around in your head. We can explore the inner story, the senses, you know. What did it smell like? What do you remember tasting that day? What did you hear? While volunteering at the Bemidji Community Food Shelf, Affield met a veteran and helped him earn his veteran benefits. In another instance, he helped a veteran's widow earn benefits. Those are examples of how Affield answers his accidental calling. He wants to help Trauma disconnect between civilians and veterans. Reach out to those veterans organizations and ask, you know, is there some resources that we can offer? Patty Affield's wife of 40 years couldn't be more proud of her husband and his journey that started many years ago. Always amazed and it's going to be exciting to see what he does in the future. For Affield, this award reinforces and authenticates the work he's done. I certainly wasn't doing it for accolades or anything like that. So what caught me as a surprise, but I'm just humbled at it to be recognized. In Bemidji, Hady Clodder, Lakeland News. Affield started a collection program at Bemidji's Cavalry Chapel that accepts non-food donated items. His meat program at Bemidji Community Food Shelf has also surpassed the 11,000 pound milestone. Congratulations to Wendell. They're certainly well deserved. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.