This past Friday the San Fransisco Stack got out for some good times, games, and of course spreading the good word of Stack-Up.Org! Read on as they took the time to tell us all about the evenings festivities!
It was a warm brisk Friday night. It was July 22, 2016 at 1900 hours. The Rohnert Park Veteran Center and the San Francisco Bay Area Stack were ready to game, eat pizza and play video games. The previous LAN Zone was hosted on a Saturday morning at 1000 hours. That first event while it did not bring in the amount of people; it provided us with valuable lessons. We asked ourselves. Why did no one show up? We began to analyze what we had been doing the night prior and we were playing video games until 0200 hours. We knew that others may have been doing the same thing and we had planned for too early an event. We planned ahead by putting out letters to local veterans for a Friday night gaming session.
This time was different. Several veterans showed up and were ready to game. There were six Xbox ones set up with four GAEMS M240’s, one M155 and a Panasonic television. A few of the Xbox’s were loaded up with Rocket League, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Rainbow Six Siege, and Overwatch. Rocket League was definitely a favorite of the group as we took turns playing 3v3 online. The atmosphere was jubilant. San Francisco Stack Co-Leads, Josh and Anthony, discussed with everyone present the three core missions of Stack-Up; Supply Crates, Air Assaults and The Stacks. We were striving to build a community where veterans and civilians could come together and work towards the betterment of everyone. Several of the attendees wanted to discuss other ways to expand the San Francisco Bay Area Stack in conjunction with bringing more people into the local Veteran Center to receive the help they need and deserve. We all know the importance of comradery that we had from our time in service and how important it is to continue to have that comradery after leaving the service.
Readjustment counselor Mat from the Rohnert Park Veteran Center had this to say about the event: “It’s amazing what the difference a change in time and day for our LAN Zone or ”˜LZ’ event made! As one Vet said, last time was just a “dry run- let’s count this as our first.” Like anything, there is no failures when you learn something and I was still driven to see these events a success. Like a reoccurring theme, I kept seeing many OIF/OEF/OND Vets talk about a place where they can meet other Vets and have a good time. There is much more going on than just playing videogames, that is how I see it and that is why I am committed to make these ”˜LZ’s’ a permanent fixture of the Northbay area. Sitting in the front office like a sentry, I waited to see who would come in. Within the first half an hour we had over 8 participants and peaked at 9. We actually ran out of Xboxs to play on- but we had plenty of pizza and soda to hold folks over until they could get in. It was awesome to hear laughter in the other room, people really just having a good time, talking about everything from games to their time in the service. By the end of the
It was awesome to hear laughter in the other room, people really just having a good time, talking about everything from games to their time in the service. By the end of the night, people were talking about how to increase awareness of our event to bolster our numbers. Vets were already taking ownership of our LZ’s and that was heartwarming! I would like to personally thank Anthony, Juan, Stack-up, the Northbay Vet Center for making this such a successful night. Here’s to many more!”
Sounds like a successful event out there in the Bay! If you would like to get involved and are in the San Fransisco area hit up the San Fran Stack HERE! Not in the Bay area, no worries we have STacks all over the country, hit this LINK to find out more and STackTFUp in your town today!