CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH RYAN ENGLE, MVH
Marquette’s Jacobetti Home For Veterans celebrated 45 years of serving Upper Peninsula veterans earlier this month with a community birthday celebration.
“It was exciting,” Ryan Engle with the Michigan Veterans Homes told RRN News. “We had music, games, food, all kinds of stuff all week for our veterans. The Daydreamers came out and did live music. We had a ceremony, some videos from the governor, lieutenant governor, Congressman Jack Bergman, Senator Gary Peters, all sending theor best wishes from afar.”
Peters, incidentally, will visit the Jacobetti Home next Wednesday morning (Aug. 26) as part of his tenth and final statewide motorcycle tour before he leaves office in a few months. Peters helped to usher through more than $50 million to build a new Jacobetti home, which is under construction in Marquette Township.
As part of the celebration this month, the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association Chapter 35-1 made another significant donation to the MVHDJJ Charitable Support Fund. This $7,899 contribution will bring the organization’s cumulative giving to $100,000, over twelve years of support for the Jacobetti Home and its residents.
“Just an incredible week, and an incredible celebration,” Engle said.
Engle says the home’s namesake, former state representative Dominic Jacobetti (D-Marquette) was key to bringing this home back in 1981. He says other homes are older, with the home in Grand Rapids opening back in 1886.
But now they’re preparing to say goodbye to the building that sits on the southern edge of downtown Marquette for the new facility out in the township.
“We’ve got a great group of contractors out there,” Engle said. “We broke ground on May 23rd of 2025, so over a year ago. From that groundbreaking, we estimated 30 to 36 months to construction completion. That means late 2027 to have constriction complete. Then there’s a process of transition that we need to go through.”
Engle estimates veterans moving into the new facility sometime in 2028.
“We’ll be staffing two buildings for a while,” he said. “So, it will be a process.”
He says the veterans home receives state and federal funds to operate. So, why do they need the Charitable Support Fund, which the motorcycle group donated to?
“We use those funds for things that essentially impact the quality of life of our veterans,” Engle said. “All the extra stuff and fun-life activities. Cool therapy equipment. All the stuff that we perhaps would not be able to do.”
Individuals interested in making a gift to Michigan Veteran Homes should send an email to DMVA-MVHgiving@michigan.gov.
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