We’re about to close the door on year 2014 and open the door on year 2015.

Many, many veterans and their survivors have benefitted. Thanks for allowing us to reach out to our veterans and their families with this weekly column. Thanks, also, to all those who provided information used to inform our veterans and their survivors of the benefits available to them.

I do want to thank those at the Mid- Coast Veteran’s Resource Center (MVRC) for all their help. Remember, these are all volunteers — no one gets paid. Roger and Bonnie Dumont, Read Rich, Paul Loveless and all those who help with daily activities. A very special thanks to Jim Howard for his many contributions, and to Gil Ormsby for his knowledge, experience and dedication. Many others also help with this column, including Marty Diller, Amedio Lauria, Paul Loveless, Peter Ogden, David Patch and Read Rich.

Politically, things haven’t gone well for our veterans. The 113th session of Congress has ended with only five laws positively affecting veterans. Five out of a proposed 900 during the last two years; 50 or more had to do with helping our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Meanwhile, many, many of our National Guard, Reserves, and active duty veterans answered the call and are now suffering the ravages of war wounds, disease and want. ‘We the people’ must unite and let our congressional delegation — senators Collins and King, and representatives Pingree and Poliquin — know that we care and want them to take action. We must keep a steady barrage of letter writing and phone calls to ask them to support our veterans in Maine. The 114th Congress will be sworn in on January 6. There will be 81 veterans serving in the House and 20 in the Senate. Of note, this will be the first time in a long time that no WWII veterans are members of Congress.

Here is some of the veteransrelated legislation that we will be watching in our 114th Congress: l Any legislation affecting our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans such as homelessness, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and all mental health issues, including suicide l SBP/DIC offset: Support legislation to repeal the SBP/DIC offset for surviving spouses of veterans who die of serviceconnected causes l Paid-up SBP insurance at age 67: Support a change to the minimum age for paid-up SBP from age 70 to 67, which will allow those who joined the military at ages 16-19 and served for 20 years to only be required to pay SBP premiums for 30 years l Retention of the final month of retired pay: Support legislation authorizing the surviving spouse ( or other designee) to retain the full amount of monthly retired pay if the veteran lived more than one day that month l Reserve retirees veterans status: Seek full veterans status for reservists with 20 or more years of service who do not otherwise qualify for full veterans benefits under current law.

I will keep you up to date on these legislative bills. In Maine legislation, I’ll be asking you to contact our local state legislators to support legislation that positively affects Maine veterans.

In case you missed it, Sen. Angus King announced a $74,000 grant to fund an initiative by Maine’s Pine Tree Legal Assistance to improve civil legal assistance for veterans — particularly female veterans. For more information, call PTLA at (207) 774-8211. Veterans in need are urged to take advantage of this service.

Also of note, Sweetser ( www.sweetser.org), one of Maine’s most comprehensive behavioral healthcare organizations for children, adults and families, also provides support, counseling and therapy for active military, veterans and their families, and their survivors. Working in more than 75 communities throughout Maine, Sweetser’s services and resources support recovery, rehabilitation and community reintegration. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call Sweetser’s PromiseLine at (800) 434-3000.

A couple more notes: Anyone interested in volunteering at the MVRC in Brunswick are urged to call Read Rich at 406- 4103; anyone interested in helping with our Point In Time survey of the homeless on January 28, 2015, are also asked to call Read Rich.

Finally, I would like to thank our Coffee Crowd for your input. Who better than veterans themselves know what’s going on with other veterans? Also, it is nice to see our friend Connie is back. It looks like our prayers have been answered — nice to have you back, Connie! Well folks, time to say goodbye to 2014. See you next year.

‘Till then, keep the faith.

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Chick Ciciotte is the legislative chairperson for the Mid- Coast Veterans Council. He lives in Topsham.