Veteran's Outreach

I am grateful for the country that we live in and I owe my freedoms to think, to do, and to be the patriot and individual that I am to the brave veterans of our Armed Forces. I am in a position to give something back to our men and women, being able to help a veteran in need is a great honor.  

I am grateful for the generosity of the 10’s of thousands of contributors, so far, and we have come a long way in this decade. The future years will be even more of a challenge than today, considering the number of soldiers that will be coming back from the current fronts with afflictions not even fully known yet.

I am thankful that the local newspaper near our national headquarters gave us the following  headline story. It opened up information of our many services…and the difficulties that we have faced raising donations. A part of the problem is the economy, but I must note there is some apathy and cynicism in this country.

The positive article spawned donations from cash, food vouchers, and an offer of a building rent free for a year and some offers at low rent. It also hastened calls from American Legions and VFW’s with plans on fund raising and donations.

The article also invoked a call from a US Senator’s office…and a follow up visit.  When the exploratory meeting was over a question was posed, “If I asked you what your wish list was for help from Washington…what would it be?” It prompted my own question, “How long do you have?” There is so much to do and to be in a better position to really offer long term remedies. We basically help with short gaps of disparagement, and a lot of times that was just enough!

Robert Julian, alias…"Mr. Bob”, reflected that the dental care offerings need to be addressed. I said that I would like us to be in a position to offer a strong job readiness, training, placement, and creation. They, of course, have something in the works on a JOBRedirection.

I wish that I was in on that to help hammer out some details or directives/adjuncts that I would like to see implemented. I indicated that we have helped thousands of veterans without one penny from the federal government. One can only imagine what we could do if we got a little help from our Washington friends.

"I asked the senator's liaison if he had ever come across an organization like ours, he resounded a quiet but thoughtful…"Noooo!" I asked him, “Was that a good NO or a bad NO?”  He followed that up by giving us a cash donation!!! Well, that’s a start! Maybe a trickle down effect? I hope so….

Maybe one of these days they’ll invite “Veterans’ Outreach” as a consultant on Veterans’ Program MATTERS. The veteran's welfare certainly does matter to us…as it should to all of our fellow Americans.

We are taking some initial steps now with Job Readiness and handing out our customized Job Questionnaire Survey to the very vets that are waiting for help in our office. You wouldn’t believe the background, experience, and talents those vets have!

Next…I hope that you enjoy our JOURNAL and all of the other developments of our web sites. We have assembled a nice WEBteam and VETERANSOUTREACH.COM promises to be a big tool of vet help, networking resources, news, updates, and fund raising for our growing services. I thank you for your ongoing support for our vets through Veterans’ Outreach.

 "To serve and honor!"