Mountain View Veterans Spearheaded by Civilian Shino Tanaka

The City of Mountain View prides itself on providing services that satisfy the needs of its community, and Shino Tanaka, founder of Mountain View Veterans, intends to serve both the military and business communities with her non-profit organization. 

Despite being a civilian, the Sacramento native has always shared a connection with the military community. Tanaka served the City of Menlo Park as a police officer for several years, primarily working midnight shifts for the narcotics unit.

"I was a police officer and you go in with a certain idealism," said Tanaka, "and then you come out really understanding the way things work on a whole other level."

"I left Menlo Park because I had my son, who is now nine years old, and I was itching to get back out and do something," said Tanaka, "I think it was an especially hard transition I went from being a police officer to a stay at home mom."

In 2006, Tanaka's yearning to jump back into employment was satisfied upon reading a Craigslist post at 3 a.m. during a sleep-deprived night of coddling her baby boy. The post detailed a parenting start-up company based in Palo Alto that was keen on acquiring a contractor for data entry.

After spending several years in technology start-ups focusing on social product development, specifically building online communities, Tanaka was able to incorporate her expertise into developing an organization that merged her two passions: the military community and local businesses.

"I have been a huge advocate of veterans for 20-plus years and I've been trying to give back in any way that I can, whether that be monetarily or through my time, but it really I think, hit home for me two years ago," she said.

Tanaka explained that "a good friend of mine suffered a great loss: there was an incident in Afghanistan on the Kandahar base, and he lost nine of his colleagues, and hearing and having been through that experience with him, really drove home to me that there are men and women who are coming back physically in parts, physically and mentally."

This past Saturday, April 27th marked two years since the incident took place, and since then, Tanaka experienced another loss that ultimately motivated her plunge into founding a non-profit organization. In December of 2012, Tanaka’s good friend and ex-marine took his life, and is survived by his two children.

"That was the icing on the cake for me," recalled Tanaka.

Tanaka has spent most of 2012 focused on this organization and she's approached it as if it were a ""social product."

"if I look at this from a very pragmatic perspective, what would I do if this was a product I was trying to develop?" she said. "Well I would see if there is an actual need for it, so I went out and networked, talked to my friends, got referrals, talked to people on the phone, emailed them, went in person and said okay you are in the military, you are a veteran, tell me if this idea is something that would interest you, would you participate in something like this?”

Tanaka has spent the last eight months of 2013 developing Mountain View Veterans, an organization that bridges the veteran and business communities for a common goal: honoring veterans service and supporting “local brick and mortars.”

According to Tanaka, Mountain View Veterans defines a "veteran" as anyone who is in active duty, retired and reservist. Tanaka’s all-inclusive approach was made to capture anyone who has served for his or her country.

"It’s all about elevating, honoring and remembering their service, whether it’s past or present," said Tanaka. "It’s about being able to give back and keeping the money local, and keeping businesses alive and well, and representing and showing appreciation for the veterans."

According to the Mountain View Veterans website, the concept of the organization is a simple one: local Businesses offer a discount to veterans; Mountain View Veterans promotes their discount to veterans on various social networks; and businesses gain the support of the military community and veterans support veteran-friendly local businesses.

The Mountain View General Store, owned by Tina Ambrogi, was the first local business to participate in Mountain View Veteran’s discount service. Ambrogi instantly agreed to a 15 percent discount for veterans upon speaking with Tanaka.

Peet’s Coffee, located at 1032 Castro St. off El Camino Real, was the second location to join the discount service. Peet’s Coffee however, suggested a 20 percent discount to further serve the military community.

Tanaka not only spearheads Mountain View Veterans, but is also the sole staff member that drives its operations. On any given late night, Tanaka could be found pouring over books and researching strategies, all while raising her nine-year old boy.

"It’s really important to me that we show our children that we can do these things, and that they are possible—again, it's about going back to what we care about," said Tanaka. "If you care about something, it's not work, you don’t see it as work, you don’t see it as a waste of time—you see it as an investment in something really, really good."

Tanaka has also focused her efforts on utilizing social media networks as a means to promote happenings in the military community, local discounts, and other military organizations. Mountain View Veterans boasts a Twitter, Facebook and Wordpress site, although Tanaka has an additional objective: create a mobile-based application for members of the military community.

"An app layered maybe into Google Maps [that] shows me the businesses that are veteran friendly," said Tanaka. "You can push additional discounts, special promotions, you can basically reach a whole other segment with this social media mobile app."

Although the project is still in its infancy, Tanaka also plans on incorporating a digital format of the DD Form 214 into the mobile application, so that members can easily access their military service history.

"I have seen people who don't just honor and respect veterans the way I think that we should, and for me, it isn’t a political issue, it isn’t a military issue—its just a people issue," said Tanaka.

"We should respect these people who have fought on our behalf, who have represented us overseas because we wouldn’t do it, they stepped up."

This article was produced through a collaboration of PatchU and the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at San Jose State University. PatchU is a Patch Media initiative to build strong relationships with colleges and universities across the country. The mission of PatchU is to connect students and faculty to opportunities at Patch.  

For more information, email PatchU@patch.com or follow us on Facebook.

Related on Mountain View Patch:

• LIVE BLOG: Dedication of Lt. Ken Ballard Post Office
• Mom of Mountain View Iraq War Casualty Discusses Life 10 Years Later
• Coast Guard: Lives Considered Before Costs
• Sequestration Expected to Impact Moffett Field Commissary

Don't miss a thing in Mountain View!

Follow on Twitter |  Like us on Facebook  |  Get the daily newsletter | Post to our calendar  | Share an announcement