Our Daily Show Interview! Brad Yount: Riverbend Patriots
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ALTON - Community members can support local veterans through several new initiatives and fundraisers.
RiverBend Patriots, based in Alton, is a newer organization that supports veterans through VA navigation, wellness support, and other resources. They host trivia nights every first Wednesday of the month at Mac’s Downtown, and they’re planning a golf scramble for Aug. 30, 2025, at Lockhaven Golf Course.
President Brad Yount explained that the organization aims to provide resources for veterans where there are currently none. Yount founded RiverBend Patriots alongside Tim Brown and Dustin Dixon.
“We figured out there isn’t something that fits perfectly — putting the square peg in a round hole — for our generation of veterans,” Yount said. “We don’t necessarily love all of the older organizations, but we don’t necessarily love some of the newer organizations, either. So how can we meet in the middle and make that work?”
RiverBend Patriots is completely funded through donations and sponsorships. Yount explained that they hope to raise more money through their trivia nights, which cost $15 a person and start at 6 p.m. on the first Wednesday of the month at Mac’s.
The golf scramble costs $125 for individual players or $500 for a team of four. Yount said a PGA pro will be at the scramble to provide tips, tricks and a competitive spirit. For more information about the golf tournament, including how to register, click here.
As an organization, RiverBend Patriots aims to support veterans through VA navigation, which Yount said can be “a beast,” and other wellness services. He noted that 90% of those on the organization’s board are combat veterans, and they understand veterans’ needs.
“We’ve been deployed, we’ve seen things, we’ve done things,” he explained. “There’s different things that haunt us, different things that we feel like we need to talk about or sometimes we want to talk about it or sometimes we don’t want to talk about it, and that’s where you need a battle buddy, somebody to talk to, to kind of help you work through it in an unbiased way. Sometimes your family is a little too close. Sometimes your best buddy is a little too close. Your buddies at the bar, after a while, it’s not the greatest advice, right? So you need a safe space for that.”
The organization is working with Centerstone to start a peer support program. They are interested in agrotherapy and recreational therapy, with plans to start offering these programs soon. They will also resume their art clinics at the Alton VFW in the next few months.
“We want to foster camaraderie and fellowship through activities, which provide different forms of healing,” Yount said. “We help veterans, we help first responders and all of their families. We do have a process where we can fill in some of the gaps through the government programs. We don’t do the same things that they do. We kind of pick up the pieces where government isn’t there to necessarily provide for you.”
Yount promises they have plenty of additional projects in the works, and he can’t wait to share their resources with the community.
If you want to support the RiverBend Patriots mission to help veterans, you can visit their official website at RiverBendPatriots.org or their official Facebook page to learn more about donations, sponsorship opportunities, or how to get involved. Check out the official Facebook event page for more information about the golf scramble, including how to register.
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