Veterans Antiquities creates and sells unique décor items for homes and gardens. Created by the non-profit organization Veterans in Action (VIA), they are located at 1140 East 46th Street on the Monon Trail.

Director of Program Development Jeff Piper described his background and how he joined Veterans Antiquities in the summer of 2012. "I am a non-combat Vietnam era veteran. I was injured in a training incident at 19 when I was stateside and spent a little time in a wheelchair. As I got older, I didn't know that I was disabled. I was told to go home from the Veterans Administration, take my pain medication and don't do anything. My son and I started using recycled material to build birdhouses and have been doing this for the past six or seven years. After several years of creating birdhouse kits and taking them out to veterans in wheelchairs, a vision came to me to have a central location for veterans to create them and have them expand to other items. Upon my training injury, I was denied my mission, but through making these birdhouses, I've been on a mission ever since, creating jobs and a facility for disabled vets. This mission has become a gallery, a mall-type setting for creating items from salvaged goods whenever possible. It's a win-win situation, helping veterans and Mother Nature. With the pain, there's a limitation to what you can do, but there's a strong medicine. I didn't know that the therapy of doing this would help me," Piper explained.

"Our birdhouses are made from cedar and recycled fence boards. I've saved over two tons of license plates from landfills. For every license plate that we reuse, we're reclaiming five feet of fence board. Tillman's Trucks & Vans, (located on the west side), gives us recycled plates as well," he noted.

Items are created from salvaged wood, metal and other materials that are often 80 to 100 years old. Inquiries about them can be answered by calling 602-7678 or at: info@veteransantiquities.com. They are open Wednesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed Sunday through Tuesday.

A meeting with a local businessman helped make Piper's vision a reality. "I was truly blessed to talk to Chuck Mack, a fellow veteran, (a Marine), because he had a similar mission. He owns Moe & Johnny's. I was organizing the 'Fish with a Vet Day' at the Indiana State Fair, but the goal was to converse with him and we didn't know we had a shared vision. Our visions were running very close to parallel. We toured this facility and Chuck asked me if this place would work. We opened on February 25th. He had beer, burgers and a few bucks to put into it and it couldn't go wrong," Piper mentioned.

His involvement with other non-profit entities has also benefited others. "I started OvrThere (www.ovrthere.com) known as 'Our Vets Remembered through Environmental Rehabilitative Enterprises' for six years. That was our first place to plug into this place. It was a grass roots effort and totally self-funded. OvrThere is where the birdhouse building started and my whole goal is to keep lightweight projects for guys in wheelchairs. I sponsor fishing trips with city kids and fished with over 100 kids on Monday (May 20) from Crooked Creek Elementary School and work hand-in-hand with local PTAs or any local group of kids. A girl caught her first fish Monday and it was a great experience for her. We fish on the east side at Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park. My son, Samuel, started fishing at 16 months and could steer a tractor at 18 months. Through the Indiana Department of Natural Resources' 'Go Fishin' program found at http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/7508.htm, he's a certified fishing instructor at the Indiana State Fair's 'Fish with a Vet Day.' On Thursdays, we have a group of veterans creating their choice of medium. We'll have a woodcarver, painter, somebody sketching or building birdhouses or making jewelry. I learn from them as much as they learn from me. We plan to use this facility to showcase artists whose work will appear on the walls with wine tasting events, coffee or whatever the crowd desires. Sometimes veterans visit and just talk with each other. We're getting involved with agencies who provide housing and employment," he said. His other venture, www.working4green.org, "is envisioned as a to-be-registered, Indianapolis-based nonprofit seeded by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) that contributes to community and workforce development in neighborhoods both by coordinating job training and by delivering services, beginning first in the deconstruction market."

Vance Wilson is one of the artists whose work appears at Veterans Antiquities. "I do everything from drawing and painting to woodworking and sculpture. I make jewelry out of computer parts. We're working on getting contracted jobs for tables, chicken coops, crates and whatever else anybody might want out of recycled materials. We're also currently recycling military fatigues and burlap coffee bags and turning them into purses and pillows," he described. Wilson also runs the warehouse and does production. Discussing one of his current projects, "I'm taking old gold clubs and turning them into lamps." The Louisiana native moved to Tennessee and joined the Navy where he enlisted in the Seabees and served in Guam, Japan, Diego Garcia, Kuwait and Iraq. "When I came here, the warehouse was a scattering of things everywhere, but I assessed the situation, organized and set up shelving and de-cluttered it. Now you can go back there and see what you need to work with. I'm grateful to Jeff for giving me the opportunity to come in and help," he emphasized.

Another local artist, Jeff Crist said, "I mostly paint abstracts and mixed media. I build and stretch my own canvasses and do a lot of concept canvasses, like unique ones that wrap around. The one I did that wrapped around a corner was in here and sold within 24 hours. One side was 'heaven' with the sun coming up with birds flying and other side was 'hell' which was dark." Crist served in the Army and medically retired after 12 years. "I was born in Washington State, but moved to Indiana when I was nine," he added.

A flag motif that Crist created will be permanently displayed at the VA Hospital's D Wing where their Healing Arts Wing is being renovated. The stars are made from oregano paint and the colors include cayenne pepper mixed in with the paint. Quotes from General George Patton and FDR appear in the patriotic theme.

Dennis Rice mentioned, "I've known Jeff for about 37 years and served with some of his family in the Army. When he started doing this, I helped him make some birdhouses and work in the store. When the Children's Museum's Hot Wheels project was being phased out - all their structures were pre-fabricated - we took it off their hands so that it wouldn't go to a landfill and could be reused. It's a win-win situation when you can help veterans and do something green. "Chuck (Mack) has also been a big contributor. Moe & Johnny's provides meals for veterans when they are working in the shop."

Piper's other business partner has played a key role in his other non-profit endeavor. "Barb Vance is my benefactress. She lost her brother at a young age in Vietnam. She is a degreed social worker and certified fraud examiner who works in the private sector. We own 80 acres of land called 'Popp Ridge' in Perry County around the Indiana National Forest. Derby has only one open business with some nice tourist cabins. My space has accessibility and Rainbow Pay Lake sustains Rainbow Trout. A limestone quarry there is 376 feet deep and with a hill 370 feet tall. We are really close to the German Ridge camp. You can see the forest from the trees over there. It's about midway between Evansville and Louisville on the Ohio River," he described.

Three veterans recently toured the shop, becoming acquainted with it. "If a guy goes through situational assessment, it takes about six weeks. We start with a simple assembly job where he works with different woodworking kits and starts building things. On Thursdays, we usually have a woodcarver, a sketch artist or somebody painting or building furniture. I leave them to their own devices to create things and put them on the website (www.veteransantiquities.com) for sale. They pack the items for sale and have them shipped. They mentor one another and learn to run the store or website. They can learn inventory control when they replenish materials and supplies. They continue telling the Veterans Antiquities story," Piper said.

Other veterans whose art appears in the store are Camille Richard (making beads and jewelry from glass, enamels and precious metals), Butch Perdue (creating family tree tables from recycled and claimed materials, shelves and wall hangings), Tim Hildebrandt (paintings and various artwork) and John Brooks (traditional oil paintings to large scale paintings and sculptures), just to name a few.

As a mentor to his fellow veterans, Jeff Piper has answered a new calling by reaching out to those who have courageously served our country. You can discover and purchase the artistic fruits of their labor at Veterans Antiquities.