Three local veterans placed in 2015 VA Creative Arts Festival

Three Tehachapi veterans have placed nationally, in the veterans Administration Creative Arts Festival for 2015. Army veteran, Eric Leiss, owner and operator of Tehachapi Furniture, is once again, a national title holder, having won first place for his portrayal of Nathan Detroit, in a drama entry. Air Force veteran, Debbie DeCoursey Martin, a local entrepreneur with Mary Kay, and regular vocal performer at the Triassic Winery, also received a top three national placement for a vocal entry from the musical “Wicked”. Iraq War veteran, Christine Yandek, won, or tied for first place, in a record five categories, and was the lone veteran invited to perform at the National veterans Creative Arts Festival Stage Show, from the Los Angeles VA region which also encompasses Kern County.

The competition, which began in January, includes nearly 50 visual arts and 90 performing arts categories including categories for disabled veterans. veterans must first submit entries to their regional VA contact in order to compete at the regional level. For local veterans that would be Recreation Therapist, Patrick Gregorio, located at the Sepulveda VA Acute Care Clinic. The Los Angeles regional winners were announced in March and forwarded to be judged at the national level against other regional winners from across the country. On June 22, 2015, the top three winners in each category were chosen and announced. Unfortunately, with over six thousand entries received in the performing arts categories, a top national placement did not guarantee our veterans selection to the national convention, held in October, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The invitees for 2015, however, do include Yandek, who was chosen from the Los Angeles region after winning every category she entered nationally a first in NVCAF history. She entered dance, drama, and vocal music categories in hopes of demonstrating her multi-faceted talent and gaining a coveted invitation to perform nationally. “My family is back east and will likely be able to travel to the show. I have two older brothers who are both musicians, and they have never seen me perform”, said Yandek. Besides having performed with TCT, Yandek has graced the stage with the Bakersfield Musical and Stars Dinner Theatres, and was a principle dancer and cast member in Palmdale Repertory Theatre’s blockbuster, “Music Man”. She was interviewed on the nationally televised “Home and Family Show”, which aired on the Hallmark channel, and has performed at many local events such as the Antelope Valley Senior and Health Expo stage shows.

Yandek, an Army medic, who served multiple tours in Iraq, began dabbling in performing when she and other medics used humor, drama, and song to perform at the bedsides of wounded warriors. “Being able to make someone smile through immense pain when their world has literally just been blown apart, was such a gift, and one that I am truly grateful for”, said Yandek. Having had the human cost of war in her face on a daily basis for more than a decade, Yandek says the arts are also beneficial to her, giving her a useful outlet of emotional expression. For that reason, besides performing with community theatres, she has become a fixture and the oldest student, at the J and M Dance Center in Tehachapi.

Elizabeth Mackey, the national director of the Creative Arts Festival, says, “The purpose of this program, is to recognize veterans for their creative and artistic accomplishments, and to educate communities throughout the country, on the therapeutic benefits of the arts”. Yandek added, that art therapy offers veterans the opportunity to regain a sense of stability and control that is often lost with disorders like PTSD.

The National Center for PTSD estimates that 15-20% of veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and roughly 30% of Vietnam veterans have, or will, suffer from PTSD. veterans in combat face life-threatening situations on a daily basis. They personally witness gruesome and violent scenes and they often experience death on an intimate level. These factors can have a lasting effect on the psychelong after a veteran returns home from war.

Yandek has been called an “angel in cammo” by those who know her, for acting as a beacon of hope for the souls lost in the turmoil of war in the Middle East. The National veterans Creative Arts Festival offers an opportunity for her to represent local veterans and the community, as well as to carry on the legacy she began years ago in a dusty war zone, providing inspiration and entertainment to the fellow service brothers and sisters in her charge. Yandek said, “I am both excited, and honored, to have been chosen to do this, and I will work very hard to do the best job that I can, and to represent and make everyone proud”.