Waseca veterans services director named

President Of National Organization

By ETHAN BECKER ethan.becker@apgsomn.com

Along-time Waseca County employee will have a chance to take on a new leadership role as he continues to follow a passion: helping veterans.

Chris Hinton is the director of the Waseca County Veterans Services Office. A veteran himself, Hinton felt a calling to help people in his local area following his years of service.

“I ser ved in the United States Navy. I joined in spring 2000, and I served until spring 2005,” Hinton said.

The decision to leave wasn’t easy, Hinton noted, but he looked at what he wanted out of his life and knew what he needed to do.

“I wanted to start a family, and it was the best course of action for me. …

When you’re in the military, oftentimes you have to choose between family and career,” Hinton said. “Seeing that the divorce rate was so very high in the military … I didn’t want to roll those dice, so I decided to come back.”

Following his time in the Navy, he helped his father run a mortgage company before going back to college on the G.I. Bill. He got a degree in law enforcement, and began working with the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office. Following that, he was hired to work at the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans as a case manager; a job that led him to Waseca.

“That was a wonderful, wonderful job. I got to work with some very amazing people, and I got to help out a lot of really deserving people as well,” Hinton said. “This job here at Waseca County opened up in 2015 … and after many different interviews and some stiff competition I got hired on in early 2016.”

Hinton’s current job at Waseca County sees him helping veterans and their spouses and families in the area. It was a position that gave him the ability to help and positively impact a larger veteran community, which was something that he was looking for.

“I wanted to do more. I wanted to learn more. I wanted to understand how the different policies and the different governmental agencies that are out there work,” Hinton said. “This job al- lowed me to have a bigger impact on the larger population, and I was able to help out more people.”

Following that desire to help more and more people, Hinton recently took another large step on that path when he was elected to be the president of the National Association of Veteran County Service Officers. It was a position that Hinton had worked toward for some time.

“You have to want it. Once I got onto the executive board, it become clear to me that I wanted to continue this path and learn more and do more,” Hinton said. “So I ran for Second Vice [President], then First Vice [President] and now for President.”

In this new position, Hinton will be continuing to advocate for veterans all across the state, and set up relationships and programs that will be beneficial to them.

“The biggest thing is that I want to bring information, facilities, programs and, frankly, dollars down to our local affiliates. We have to go to the top to bring the dollars back home,” Hinton said.

Hinton said that his four pillars have been efficiency, adaptability, initiative and partnerships, and that he’s going to base this term, which will last for two years, around those four things and trying to “grow NAVCSO in a way that is going to continue to help County VSO.”

“I would say the benefit that NAVCSO brings to local governments, including Waseca’s, is it allows the federal government to see what it is that we do. … It shows them there is a need,” Hinton said. Hinton will continue to serve in his position as the director of Waseca County Veterans Service Office, and following his passion, he hopes to see a CVSO in every county in the state.

“The state of Minnesota has a wonderful partnership with its local government agents … and even going up into some of the federal agencies. Not every state has that,” Hinton said. “But all they have at the state level is two people who can help file claims and stuff. … So you have millions of veterans who only have two people to talk to. I find that completely unsatisfactory.”

If You Go

Angie’s is a new restaurant at 635 Second St., smackdab in the heart of Kenyon. It’s open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday and is closed on Mondays.

On Sundays, Angie’s serves breakfast and a midday dinner. The other days, it serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.