Grand Strand veterans’ advocacy group seeks help to buy land, create resource hub

LORIS, S.C. (WBTW) — A group that advocates for veterans is seeking help to buy land for an “all-in-one” resource hub on the Grand Strand.

The “Go Get Your You Foundation” needs about $900,000 to buy a 19-acre farm in Loris. The group was started in 2021 by Margaret Harriott, a U.S. Army veteran, who said her passion for helping others, cooking and her own experience as a veteran struggling gave her the idea of wanting to open an outreach center.

“Seeing people get the things that they need and doing what they need comfortably gives me joy and makes me happy,” Harriott said.

Harriott, executive director of the foundation, lost her local restaurant business after COVID. She wanted to help other veterans in similar or worse positions than hers and came up with the name while talking about it with her sister’s friend who later died.

“She said Tonya, ‘take your time and figure out what you want to do and go get your you, whatever it is you want,'” Harriett said. “I’m like Ok, girl, yeah I like that.”

Harriott said she has helped about 150 veterans out of her own pocket since she started in 2021. Now, she wants to expand and buy land off Highway 9 in Loris, where she would offer cooking classes, food banks, mental health resources, small business classes and a community garden.

She said she hopes it can become a one-stop shop for veterans in need.

“I just want to be of help because I know what I went through, and I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through for the length of time that I went through it,” Harriott said.

Because of her own experience as a veteran in search of resources, Harriott she has dealt with organizations that don’t treat them well. She said help for veterans shouldn’t take long because when she signed up for the military, it was done in no-time.

She hopes to create a space that is available to all veterans, day or night.

“I want a place where I can have a partnership with a local business, a local dentist office that can come and set up and give services to veterans that desire it and they don’t have to wait two months,” Harriott said.

Harriott said she would like to buy the land in January and open later in the spring in time for the Juneteenth festival. She said she is lining up other fundraisers in the coming months. If you’d like to donate or help, click here .

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Adrianna Lawrence is a multimedia journalist at News13. Adrianna is originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and joined the News13 team in June 2023 after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2023. Keep up with Adrianna on Instagram, Facebook , and X, formerly Twitter . You can also read more of her work, here .

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