The price of veteran health care in Lake Havasu City is about 300,000 miles every four years.

The local Disabled American Veterans Chapter 27, along with Golden Corral, will host free meals for veterans from 4 to 9 p.m. Monday. Local DAV members will accept donations to replace a van that allows members to take trips to Prescott and Phoenix for health care needs. The previous van, a 2004 Ford, accrued more than 300,000 miles in four years after taking about five to six trips a week.

Without transportation to VA hospitals, many DAV members would not receive the health care they need in the city, DAV Treasurer Paul Petrash said.

“It’s 230 miles one way to get to the hospitals,” Petrash said. “There are services in Phoenix and Prescott that our veterans here desperately need. We’re only about $2,000 away from providing this great service.”

Petrash explained that Ford provides the van at-cost and the national DAV provides half of the total cost (about $24,000) of the vehicle. The local chapter is required to pay the other $12,000. The national DAV also provides maintenance costs but the amount the national DAV provides is also dependent on the local chapter’s DAV numbers, a statistic that hurts Lake Havasu City, he said.

“What really kills us is we’re not allotted that money if we don’t have the numbers,” Petrash said. “We’ve got almost double (DAV members) in the number of snowbirds that come in needing our help but they can’t be counted.”

The van’s trips are also entirely run by DAV members like Bill Leonard.

“Some of these people live paycheck to paycheck or are so old they can no longer work,” Leonard said. “Going to these hospitals is only way they can afford to have health care.

Without it they’re either not get the care or they have to try and find a way to pay for it here.”

Residents may mail donations to Petrash at 1918 Willow Ave., Lake Havasu City, AZ, 86403. Petrash said checks should be made out to DAV Chapter 27.

You can contact the reporter at nbruttell@havasunews.com