MILWAUKEE – The third year of the Music in the Garden series put on by the Southeast Wisconsin Veteran Suicide Prevention Task Force kicks off on Thursday at the War Memorial Beer Garden on Milwaukee’s lakefront. Community Program Coordinator for the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Veteran Outreach Program Susan Smykal told WTMJ how the idea for the event came about.
“We wanted to have an event for veterans and their families to gather in a relaxed atmosphere,” Smykal said.
DJ Cubano will be the first featured artist, performing 6-8 p.m. Milwaukee VA Community Engagement and Partnership Coordinator Dona Drew said Cubano, whose real name is Joe Davis, is a Marine veteran who first came to one of the Music in the Garden events as a guest.
“Joe came to our event two years ago, he moved new to the area and wanted to connect with veteran resources,” Drew said. “Once we met him, it kind of took off from there.”
Drew said that Davis is now the Task Force’s go-to DJ for all their events.
Beyond the music, the main goal of the Music in the Garden events – and the task force in general – is to connect Wisconsin veterans to resources they may not know about.
“We really try to bridge those gaps between our veterans services,” Drew said, describing the task force’s role as a “warm handoff.”
In addition to the Music in the Garden series, which in addition to Thursday’s show will feature two more concerts this summer in July and August, the task force maintains a detailed online calendar featuring events run by all their partners in veterans’ services as well as Frost Fest in February.
“We do that in the cold winter months when our veterans need an opportunity to get out,” Smykal said.
Winter or summer, Drew said the goal is to make sure that their events and resources can recapture the camaraderie that comes with serving in the military.
“Coming back to civilian life, I think that’s a really hard transition period for us veterans and their families,” Drew said. “We feel like we don’t have our mission anymore, looking kind of lost, not feeling like we have a direction. So we really are trying to promote that connecedness, giving people purpose, finding different avenues to serve still in the civilian world.”
All three Music in the Garden events will be held at War Memorial Beer Garden, with Kegel’s Inn offering craft beer and German specialties for purchase. The next two shows will be July 18 with rock/blues band Tonight Only and August 15 with Inner Ally, which specializes in classic rock from the 70s, ’80s and ’90s.
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