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For the second year in a row, members of VFW Post 1587 in Speedway, Ind., and its Auxiliary walked to raise awareness about the rate of suicide among veterans. Last year, the Post sponsored its first Walk 22 event and raised $10,000. This year, the event garnered $12,500. The goal for 2019 is $15,000. According to Post Commander Tim Kanyuh, the mon...
A VFW Post in North Carolina has raised more than $165,000 for autism programs in its community. Post 4066 in Shelby, N.C., donated $58,000 to Cleveland County (N.C.) Schools in June for the district’s autism programs. Funds were raised thought private donations and Post events such as dinners, auctions, poker runs, raffles and yard sales. Ho...
Amember of VFW Post 10165 in Diamond Springs, Calif., works for homeless veterans in his community and around the country. He’s doing what he can to make sure his fellow brothers and sisters are “good to go.” Tracey DiVita, a Marine Corps veteran who served from 1999 to 2003, got the idea to help homeless veterans when he came acr...
Katie Bouchard and 6-year-old daughter, Piper, are getting a little bit better every day. Katie and veteran Keith Bouchard had been married for over a decade when he took his own life. A family in despair with so many details to handle have managed a lot in the past year. What seemed to be a sudden occurrence had a long, telling trail leading to th...
VFW Post 1467 in Old Lyme, Conn., has the motto: “No bar, no building; just Good Works!” According to past Post commander Ed Shyloski, when the Post was chartered in 1993, its members met in the Old Lyme Senior Center and agreed there was no reason for a Post home or bar. Instead, they decided to put their efforts and funds into serving...
Bob Parsons says he owes everything he has to the Marine Corps. Parsons, who served as a rifleman with Delta Co., 1st Bn., 26th Marines, attached to 1st Marine Div., in Quang Nam Province in 1969, said as a high school senior, he was failing most subjects. Then a couple friends invited him along when they spoke to a Marine Corps recruiter. “T...
In the aftermath of experiencing war, some VFW members have returned to their previous passion — art — to manage post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and bring hope to others. VFW Life member Pete Damon is one of them. He was in Iraq for only a few weeks when everything changed. On Oct. 21, 2003, Damon, who served with the Arm...
It’s been 10 years since the first veterans treatment court started in Buffalo, N.Y., and Jack O’Connor is pleased with what he’s seen over the past decade. Veterans who would be in prison — and without treatment — are healing and rebuilding their lives. O’Connor, the former program director for Medicaid in Erie ...
Kirk Alkire is not a medical professional in any sense. But the emotional moments he has witnessed atop mountain peaks in Alaska prove to him that climbing in honor of fallen service members is therapeutic. One Gold Star father spoke of his deceased son, a Marine, for the first time in more than 15 years as he hiked to the summit. “This poor ...
Charles Honaker of Vancouver, Wash., joined the United States Army when a recruiter visited his college campus. He served for “20 years, one month and one day” in the I-18 Airborne Military Police Company at Fort Bragg, N.C., and as an Army recruiter. “The values instilled by the Army have led me to leadership opportunities and li...
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