Karger was struck by the soldier’s effort to face his demons alone, and had an idea for an event he hopes will help veterans see they have support.

Now “LZ for Vets” — the initials stand for landing zone — is planned for 10 a.m. Saturday at Cove Island Park. It’s happening because citizens want veterans to know they are with them, Karger said.

After a story about his idea was published in the Stamford Advocate, “people just called me out of nowhere to help,” Karger said. “I didn’t have to sell this at all. It was almost like people were waiting for an opportunity to help veterans.”

People have donated food and door prizes for LZ for Vets. They will teach tai chi and yoga classes. There will be games and other activities that Karger didn’t think possible when he tried to launch the event last October.

“I needed credibility badly, because I couldn’t pull it off last year,” he said.

He decided to try again this year, and a few months ago approached a man he saw walking downtown wearing a Vietnam war insignia.

It turned out to be Jimmy Sparrow, a Marine who served in Vietnam and afterward helped lead a grassroots effort to sue the chemical companies that made Agent Orange, which the U.S. military used to clear jungles and caused cancer and other serious health problems for those exposed.

The group won a $240 million class-action lawsuit, then for years battled with the government to win treatment for veterans.

Sparrow said he’d retired from veterans’ advocacy but stepped back in after meeting Karger.

“I said I was never going to get involved in things again, but he has such enthusiasm for this, and it’s genuine,” Sparrow said.

Karger has said that, after he heard his neighbor’s story of the horrors he saw and endured, he realized the soldier “is one of the people who have been there protecting me my whole life, without my even knowing it.”

Sparrow brought the credibility he needed to pull off the event, Karger said. Then the phone started ringing.

He heard from a city attorney, Amy LiVolsi, whose father, Frank LiVolsi, is a Vietnam veteran. Amy LiVolsi will teach classes Saturday in a type of yoga designed to help veterans.

Business owners from Di Mare Bakery, Camp Avenue Car Wash, The Village Table and Peter Suchy Jewelers offered gift certificates and prizes. A Stamford resident donated the nearly $300 needed to buy liability insurance for the event and another donated $500 for food. An event planner is helping out and a guitarist will provide music.

“Almost everybody I talked to teared up while discussing this,” Karger said. “People seemed moved by what we’re doing.”

One was Patricia Parry, mother of decorated Navy SEAL Brian Bill, who was killed in 2011 when his team’s Chinook helicopter was shot down during a daring nighttime mission in Wardak Province, Afghanistan.

Parry said she reached out to Karger because he “wanted to do something wonderful to give back to veterans, and I want to support him in any way I can.”

Parry said not enough people have direct contact with veterans.

“All veterans come home with some wounds — all veterans — and I think we need to be aware of it,” she said. “The thing families and friends of veterans always say, no matter the conflict —World War II, Korea, Vietnam — is that when they come home, they don’t want to talk about it.

“Anything that allows them a venue to get together, to try tai chi and yoga — wonderful modalities used by a lot of people — is a great thing,” Parry said. “This gives veterans a chance to get together and people a chance to recognize what they’ve done.”

Karger said it’s heartbreaking that military personnel return home to battle Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder alone.

The hope, Sparrow said, is that Cove Island will be a safe place to land.

“A lot of vets will say they don’t have PTSD, even if they do, so we are not emphasizing that for the event,” Sparrow said. “I think guys will want to come because of Pat Parry, a Gold Star mother. I told Dan, ‘What you have to remember is that we are giving our time to do this event, but she gave her son.’ And she is still willing to give.”

The group plans to form a 501(c)(3) and make LZ for Vets an annual event, Sparrow said.

“We honor the dead by serving the living,” he said. “Remembrance is the cornerstone of civilization.”

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