Veterans Assistance Fund

The last few months living in Lee County Florida has been a challenge for everyone, but Hurricane Ian affected the most vulnerable individuals including the most vulnerable, disabled and elderly Veterans. During this quarter with the donations we received we were able to help Veterans affected by the storm with:

• Moving assistance, to move one of the Veterans to another habitable residence because his primary residence was deemed un-inhabitable due to hurricane Ian
• Emergency Food and clothing and drinking water to another Veteran who lost everything
• Tearing out and disposing of the items destroyed in an Elderly Veterans Home so he could start the rebuilding process

So the donations received from this fund do make a difference in these Veterans lives, it changes their lives for the better and without these donations many would not know where to turn to.

We have established a group of Veterans that also help move older Veterans into another residence when needed, collect and deliver donanted furniture to Veterans that have become homeless and are being housed again. So the donations that we receive from this fund is "Changing Lives on Veteran at a Time" Thank you so much for helping us make a difference in these Veterans Lives!

Unfortunately our donations for the Veterans Assistance Fund were very light this quarter so our ability to help our Veterans was low as well. We were able to help one Veteran move into his apartment by paying his deposit of $1000.

Our Veterans needs have increased especially now since Hurricane Ian, many are homeless, many without food, water, shelter etc. This fund helps many Veterans in need and is 100% dependent upon donations without these donations we can't help the men and women of our country that have given there all for our country. Please help by donating what you can to our Veterans in need.

We appreciate any and all donations a little goes a long way to help pay for food, utilities, car payments, clothing, deposits for apartments, fees to adopt service animals etc. Thank you for all you do to help our Veterans in need!

During the Pandemic and beyond the need to help Veterans increases daily. In this past quarter we helped 3 Homeless Veterans secure housing and while they were waiting we placed them in hotels for 2-3 weeks at a time. These Veterans had nothing when we met them, they had lost all of their personal belongings due to one thing or another so after we housed them we helped to furnish their apartments with dishes, pots and pans, beds, bedding, couches, dining room tables and chairs and even bought them food. 

When we do this work we see people at their worst and hopefully we change their lives for the better, but this work is difficult and it becomes even more challenging with rising rents and increases in everything from food to clothing to household supplies. We could not do this great work without your great support so thank you for donating to this worthy cause your donations do make a difference!

The photo is a picture of one of the Veterans we helped with your donations, most Veterans don't want us to share their pictures as they get embarassed that they even had to ask for help after serving their country.

This quarter due to the housing crisis we housed 2 homeless Veterans in Hotels for a 3 week stay, one in November, one in December. The total amount of those stays was $6,500.00. These hotel stay were necessary because their is a huge lack of affordable housing and these two Veterans had challenges such as evictions and other issues related to housing. We worked with housing partners during the time these Veterans were in the hotel to negotitate with landlords to get them into permanent housing as well as to get them connected to a payee so to insure their rent is paid and they remain housed.

We also paid Utility bills for 3 Veterans totally $1,500.00 who were having their utilites turned off.

Thanks everyone for all of your help in making these life changing donations a reality, without your help we would not be able to make a difference in these Veterans lives!

When Veterans are discharged from the military most non-veteran personnel thinks the transition from Military to Civilian life is easy and once a Veteran is discharged they just go back to their regular lives, if only that were the case. Most Veterans because of the structure of military life have difficulty adjusting to a "regular life". In most cases the duties they performed when they were in the military don't equate to a regular career, so retraining has to happen if the Veteran has not been affected by PTSD and war. 

Most of the Veteran clients we see need help with housing, food, paying rent and mortgage and car payments, for some the need is greater the following is a list of the help that we were able to provide to Veterans this quarter because of your generous donations:

One of our Veterans lost his spouse due to COVID-19 we helped pay for her funeral: $2,850.00

One Veterans needed help with his electric bill we paid $375 to get it current and to get the power switched back on.

One Veteran needed a PTSD Dog so he could cope with every day life, we helped pay for the adoption fees, dog food and Vet visit so the dog was up to date on it's shots: $475.00

What we do makes a difference, what we do changes lives, but we could not do this without your donations, thank you so much for your much needed donations we are making a difference!