Tomah VA Medical Center Hosted Annual Creative Arts Festival
Tomah VA Medical Center (VAMC) hosted their annual Creative Arts Festival in June of 2024, and closed out the season with an award ceremony on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. 21 Veterans attended the award ceremony out of the 44 participants with a total of 85 submission.
The celebration included representation from Tomah VAMC executive leadership team members, local American Legion Auxiliary president and sponsor of the Creative Arts Festival, Helene Stein, and newly crowned 2024 Miss Wisconsin, Mandi Genord. Veterans were awarded medals and certificates honoring the hard work and dedication to each entry submitted.
The award ceremony started with a reminder about the healing therapeutic power of the creative arts. The Tomah VAMC incorporates the creative arts into their therapy programs to further the rehabilitation goals for patients. Board Certified Music Therapist and Co-chair for the Creative Arts Festival, Bethany Riedel, was quoted stating, “The gift of the creative arts is the availability to express oneself without the need for words and to bring awareness to an experience, maybe a shared one, that reminds us we are not alone”.
Many Veterans engage in the creative arts for managing mental health symptoms such as depression and PTSD and others specifically for physical rehabilitation goals such as prolonging use of dexterity of their hands or concentration to task. Other Veterans shared the main reason they engage in the creative arts is for managing chronic and debilitating pain as it helps distract and take their mind away from the pain.
Out of the 85 entries submitted into the local Creative Arts Festival, 79 of those entries are moving onto the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival competing against other Veterans from up to 128 other VA’s. The Tomah VAMC has had national placing winners for 8 years in a row!
For more information on Performing Arts entries, please call Bethany Riedel, MT-BC at 608-377-1308 or 1-800-872-8662, Ext. 61262 and visit www.va.gov/tomah-health-care/programs/creative-arts-competition/ for more information.