From the Winchester Star -

MIDDLETOWN - Area military veterans will have access to dozens of local employers at a hiring event at Lord Fairfax Community College in late September. Carrie Stuby, Disabled Veteran Outreach Program representative with the Virginia Employment Commission, said recently that more than 200 veterans and 34 employers participated in a similar hiring fair in January. Stuby has asked that any employer who sends a representative have at least one job available at the time of the event.

"I hear that veterans go to career events but employers don't have any jobs available," she said. "I wanted to make sure there was employment [available] here."

The hiring event - which will be held in LFCC's Corron Community Development Center at the college's campus near Middletown - will include resources such as the Department of Adult Rehabilitative Services' resume writing program and information on the federal bonding program for veterans who have felonies on their record. Representatives from the Martinsburg, W.Va., Veterans Affairs Medical Center also will be there.

While Stuby doesn't know how many veterans got jobs as a result of the last fair, she plans to ask business to fill out forms on whether or not they hired any veterans from the upcoming event.

"Any [employer] that's willing to send a representative would be fantastic," Stuby said. "We're trying to do outreach to any white-collar company that's willing to participate. I do have a lot of white-collar veterans who can get back to work."

The hiring event is open to veterans and spouses of veterans, she added.

"There's a lot of benefits for both [employers and veterans]," Stuby said. "[The fair is] getting our veterans who have risked their lives for us, as Americans, to be able to get back to work."

And employers "get a resource that can be a great tool for them that can make their businesses more successful because most veterans have loyalty, dedication and job expertise," she added.

From the Rotary Club of Winchester -

Carrie Stuby, U.S. Army veteran and retired police officer and Wilanett Rodgers, U.S. Air Force retiree, spoke to us about the Disabled Veterans Outreach Program. The program’s mission is to reduce the level of unemployment for disabled veterans within our community.

Working with the Virginia Employment Commission, Stuby has created a recruitment database linking unemployed veterans with job postings from participating employers. Rodgers manages the data base. Stuby felt the need to dispel the misconception by employers of who a disabled veteran is.

She underwent five surgeries following a trailer collapse during her service and went on to a successful career in law enforcement. Stuby states that their data base has 200 - 250 veterans listed but hopes to see that total grow with many more disassociated unemployed veterans in the area. Stuby believes in meeting face-to-face with employers to determine if the employer and job listing are worth including in the data base.

Continuing that theme of face-to-face interaction Stuby partnered with Lord Fairfax Community College and created a Veterans conference job fair this past January getting 34 local employers to participate. In addition to putting numerous disabled veterans in contact with perspective employers, resume writing seminars were conducted and the Martinsburg Veterans Association helped register veterans for benefits. Stuby is planning a second job fair on September 25th again with LFCC as a partner and hopes that it is bigger and better than the first.