Breaking ground on a new kind of gathering place for veterans in Minneapolis If there's a message from Every Third Saturday's new headquarters near the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, it is this: There still is hope. July 21, 2021 — 6:39pm Text size Copy shortlink: When he's working with homeless or struggling military veterans at his Minneapolis nonprofit, Every Third Saturday, there's a phrase Tom McKenna uses often. That phrase is "lethal absence of hope." It was coined by a Los Angeles priest who works with former gang members, and it is exactly what McKenna wants these veterans to avoid. "That's where suicide occurs — when there's nothing left and you have no hope," said McKenna, himself a Marine Corps veteran who has struggled with addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in the military. "If you're on the street, you may not have had a shower for a few days. You may not have a change of clothes. You may not have shaved. And you start to feel like you look. We don't want that."