CHICAGO – U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today met with veterans who work at Rags of Honor, a silk-screening business that works to get homeless veterans off the streets, and talked with leadership and veterans about S. 1004, the Veterans Day Moment of Silence Act, which was introduced earlier this year with five bipartisan cosponsors. The bill requires the President to issue a proclamation each year that calls on United States citizens to observe two minutes of silence on Veterans Day in honor of the service and sacrifice of veterans throughout history.
“The best way to show support for veterans who served our country is to offer them jobs upon returning home from service,” Senator Kirk said. “There are more than 1,000 homeless veterans in Illinois and companies like Rags of Honor are helping our nation’s heroes get back on their feet in the best way possible.”
Mark Doyle is the founder of Rags of Honor, a Chicago company that employs veterans. Doyle currently employs seven veterans full time and two part time, many of whom were previously homeless. Senator Kirk’s ‘Battle Buddies‘ t-shirts were made at Rags of Honor.
Mark employs veterans like Tamika, who is the Director of Customer Service and served six years in the U.S. Navy and two years in Afghanistan as a small arms weapons instructor. When she returned from Afghanistan, suffering from panic attacks and struggling to find work to support her three children, she lived in her car for seven months while trying to find work. Tamika met Mark through an employment agency and he hired her that same day. She has worked with Rags of Honor since 2014.