Though it's wonderful to have a day set aside to recognize the sacrifice our veterans have made for our country, the fact is that America has not done a very good job in taking care of them. 22 veterans and active service members commit suicide a day. That is unacceptable.
And the fact is, they are left behind by most Americans as well. We honor them and thank them on patriotic holidays such as Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and maybe Independence Day. We shake a few hands, thank them for their service and the next day is back to life and for many veterans, it's back to strife.
Let's pay it forward to make it Veterans Day every day. There are little things that can be done that can make a big difference in their lives. And I looked up some ideas. Every charity listed has been checked through Charity Navigator.
Keep this on hand in case you meet a veteran who needs help. They can call, chat, and text. https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/
Here's a website listing of some ways you can honor a vet. https://www.wallawalla.va.gov/misc/honor_veteran.asp
Nine more ways to help veterans. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/05/us/iyw-simple-ways-to-honor-veterans/index.html
Contact your local VFW or American Legion to see what you can do. https://www.vfw.org or http://www.legion.org.
Fisher House Foundation: https://www.fisherhouse.org/about/ Provides housing for military families near the hospitals where their loved ones are patients.
Homes for our Troops - building homes for veterans that have special accomodations due to combat injuries. https://www.hfotusa.org
Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund - providing financial assistance and help to post 9/11 combat veterans. https://semperfifund.org
Navy-Marine Corps Relief Fund - providing service to veterans of
Operation Homefront - providing a variety of services for veterans.
Puppies Behind Bars - provides training for inmates so they, in
Disabled Americans Vets (DAV) - Dedicated to building better lives for veterans and their families. They also have an initiative to end veteran homelessness. https://www.dav.org/
Feel free to peruse these sites, and look up your own. I advise checking against sites like Charity Navigator. A lot of charities use donations in order to pay for more fundraising. When you get stuff from charities in the mail that has things like personalized address labels, that all costs money. The more money spent on fundraising, especially with cold hit mailings, were people are likely to use the labels but not donate, takes money away from what their mission is
There are other local ways you can help. Give meals, take them out to dinner, volunteer, offer a ride, visit vets in hospitals or nursing homes, instead of just thanking, ask their names first and use it when you thank them for a touch of something personal, or just stop, sit down and spend some time with them. Ask them about the war. It's a major part of their lives that has forever changed it. Talking about things actually does
Here are some ideas for to support our active service members:
Adopt a Soldier - do you have time to write a soldier weekly for
A Million Thanks - another letter writing organization. A Million Thanks collects letters, cards, and postcards to units. Because of privacy policies, they don't do one on one letter-writing though I believe you can put your address down. You can also send packages. http://amillionthanks.org
Operation Gratitude - Donate items for care packages! They have many unique ideas on things to send.
I hope this helps give you some ideas on how to help veterans who are struggling in their civilian lives. They need help and respect from the country they fought for and the people of that country. These men and women chose to go overseas, in order for the rest of of us to live in this country doing what we want. They deserve more recognition than on just one day.
To any veterans and active military that might read this...my undying gratitude for what you have done for us.
