When most of us are 70 years old, we’ll be lucky if we can still touch our toes. But Jim Shiew of Buena Vista, Colo., could serve as inspiration to us all: the Korean War veteran and West Point graduate is currently jogging across the country on a mission that he calls Run America for Vets, raising money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.
Shiew has been running for 11 months now and has no plans to stop until he reaches his goal. “It’s very important that we take care of our vets, because they’re not being properly taken care of, and they need a lot of help,” he said.
He serves as his own support crew and travels with two cars — a van and a station wagon with hand-painted red, white and blue stripes, flags and info about his mission (so people know how to donate to his cause).
How does he run and drive two vehicles? He described his process to Stephanie Santostasi of WCYB: “Drive the van forward a couple miles, run back pick up the car, drive it to the van, then move the van forward again. I just kind of follow myself.”
As he inches his way across the country at about 12 miles a day, “I’ll be going east, but running west,” he told Maisie Ramsay of The Chaffee County Times before he embarked on his journey Nov. 1, 2013 in Colorado. He ran to California, waded in the Pacific, then doubled back, heading east all the way to Virginia Beach, which he plans to reach on Sept. 24.
“As far as I can tell, if I can do this, I’ll be the oldest one to run across America,” he told Ramsay.
According to Holly Kozelsky of the Martinsville Bulletin, each day Shiew phones his coordinator, Jim Blakeslee, to report on his progress. (He invites people to track his journey on his Facebook page, Jim For Vets.) Blakeslee arranges accommodations — often at veterans’ organizations or camping facilities — for Shiew.
As for how Shiew feels about America after seeing it one step at a time? He told Kozelsky, that he’s had “wonderful weather, and met some great people. It gives me faith that this is a great country. I just haven’t met anybody who has treated me any way but nice.”
MORE: How Does Running Coast-To-Coast Help Veterans?
Tag: disabled veterans
When Death or Disability Threatens the Possibility of Attending College, This Organization Steps In
With the start of the new school year, many high school seniors are taking those first steps towards college. Between attending SAT prep classes, taking the actual SAT, making college visits and doing general schoolwork, many are also thinking about the looming stress of financial aid.
And while college is hard enough to afford for most families, affordability is an even bigger problem for the children of deceased or wounded veterans. As of January 2014, 85 percent of the more than 1.4 million children of deceased or wounded veterans weren’t eligible for federal financial assistance.
That’s where Folds of Honor steps in. Since 2007, this nonprofit has been offering scholarships to children of disabled or deceased service members. All children in such families are guaranteed a scholarship — no matter the number or cost.
This all started back when Major Dan Rooney attended the funeral of one of his fellow servicemen, Corporal Brock Burkin. As the family received the body of Burkin, Rooney saw their grief and suffering, along with a void that needed to be filled. So, in between his second and third tours in Iraq, he started Folds of Honor, with Burkin’s son, Jacob, as the first recipient.
The organization has only grown from there. In its seven years of existence, Folds of Honor has granted 7,500 scholarships. In 2014 alone, 2,050 awards totaling $10 million were given.
In addition to being a former F-16 pilot with the Oklahoma Air National Guard, Rooney is also a PGA professional and USGA member. Due to these connections, Folds of Honor tees off across the country to fundraise. Thanks to a partnership with the PGA and USGA, an annual Patriots Golf Day tournament is held every year.
Throughout Labor Day weekend, golfers can add an extra dollar to their green fees that will be donated straight to the nonprofit. With 5,200 golf courses registered across the country, there are ample opportunities to participate.
And what a lucrative endeavor it is. In 2013, $5 million was raised for the organization during the weekend.
While Folds of Honor can’t replace the loss of these families, it can at least provide the children with an opportunity for a better life.
For Kylie Nemecek whose dreams of attending USC were threatened, Folds of Honor is making them a reality.
“Without it I probably wouldn’t be where I am today fulfilling my dream and forever I’ll be grateful for that,” Nemecek tells WLTX 19.
MORE: A Small Island That Makes a Big Difference for America’s Veterans
The New Memorial Honoring Disabled Veterans and Their Caretakers
Each year, hundreds of thousands of tourists descend upon Washington, D.C. to visit the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and the National World War II memorials. While these monuments honor the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, until now there hasn’t been a memorial to honor those that didn’t lose their lives, but that suffer from lifelong wounds.
The American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial, set for dedication on October 5, will commemorate those whose service has left their bodies permanently damaged, as well as the caretakers who help them get through each day.
Jacqueline Klimas of the Washington Times interviewed two of the memorial’s honorees — Dennis Joyner, who lost his legs and his left hand while he served in the Army during the Vietnam War, and his wife Donna Joyner, who quit her job in 2008 to take care of him full time — about the sort of sacrifice that goes on every day in this country but receives little recognition. “We all sacrifice a lot. We don’t live our lives the same as anybody else,” she says.
Joyner serves as the secretary on the board that planned the $80 million memorial, which features reflections from disabled veterans and their caretakers, such as, “When you’re young, you’re invincible. You’re immortal. I thought I’d come back. Perhaps I wouldn’t, there was this thought, too, but I had this feeling that I would come back. Underneath that feeling there was another, that maybe I wouldn’t be quite the same, but I felt I’d make it back.”
The memorial is completely handicap accessible and features bronze sculptures that blind veterans are encouraged to touch and a star-shaped fountain — its five sides representing each of the military branches.
The memorial is located in a park on Capitol Hill, where legislators will be able to see it. “Maybe the lawmakers will be reminded that this is what happens and [that] we deal with it every day,” Joyner tells Klimas.
MORE: Her Husband Fought Overseas. Now She’s Fighting For Him and For All Wounded Vets
For Veterans Suffering from PTSD, Relief is Found Deep Under Water
For U.S. soldiers, returning home from deployment can be a lonely event. That’s especially true for those suffering from PTSD; these veterans often isolate themselves from others, seeking the quiet and calm that they haven’t experienced since before their service.
Marine veteran Timothy Maynard of Greenville, N.C., has found a way to achieve that peace without isolation and now he’s sharing his secret with others.
After serving his country for eight years, Maynard struggled. “It was pretty bad,” he tells Josh Birch of WNCT. “I did a little bit of time with the rehabilitation clinic trying to get back to where I could kind of function with normal people and on my own.”
Then Maynard tried scuba diving through Scuba Now, and enjoyed it so much, he became an instructor. “Underwater it’s just kind of quiet, it’s slow, I don’t have to worry about distractions from other people, other noise,” Maynard tells Birch. “It’s just me and my breath. I’m just doing my own thing. So it lets me slow my mind down so that I can relax and I don’t have to stress.”
Maynard began to invite other vets to try scuba diving as therapy, and he must be a pretty convincing pitchman because over the past year, the Scuba Now shops in Greenville and Wilmington, N.C. have trained 400 veterans, bringing the total number of service members receiving instruction to over 2,500 in the past six years.
Scuba Now offers scuba certification, which normally costs hundreds of dollars, free of charge to any veteran who has earned the Purple Heart medal.
Maynard thinks scuba’s benefits have gone beyond just a fun hobby for him. “I attribute it to saving my life cause it kind of gave me meaning, gave me something to do again and now I just love it,” he says.
MORE: Meet the Marine-Turned-Doctor Helping Veterans Overcome PTSD
How Competing in a Horse Show Gives Disabled Veterans a Sense of Belonging
When serving their country, members of the armed services display their expertise on the battlefield. Back at home here in the U.S., some veterans are putting their skills on display in a different type of theater: the equestrian show ring.
Recently, a group of more than 20 veterans gathered at the Tulsa, Okla. fairgrounds to show off everything they know about horsemanship for a panel of judges at the National Snaffle Bit Association’s World Championship. All are participants in Heroes on Horses, a nonprofit providing equine therapy to disabled veterans. Some, like Army veteran Matthew Evans, are lifelong riders, while others had never been on a horse before they became involved with the program.
“It’s kind of like a milestone, you know?” Evans tells Tony Russell of News On 6. “Some of these people have never seen a horse before and they step up to a horse for the first time, and now here they are competing in a world show, you know? That just goes to show how far they’ve come and how great they are.”
While horse riding is meant to be therapeutic, there’s something about the thrill of competition that gives the disabled vets an extra boost. The judges evaluated them according to the stringent standards they use to measure other riders before announcing the winners. Still, Evans tells Russell, “Being able to compete with other veterans again isn’t so much a competition, it’s more of a camaraderie and a brotherhood. It’s kind of like a reunion.”
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As for the value of equine therapy, Marine veteran James Mincey says, “They always say that the best thing for the inside of a man is the outside of a horse, so there’s a lot to that.”
MORE: This Injured Veteran Healed Himself. Now He’s Bringing His Secret to Others
These Veterans Choose to Fish Instead of Cutting Bait
For centuries, people have turned to this activity to achieve tranquility, enjoy camaraderie and decrease stress. No, not yoga. We’re talking about fishing.
It’s little wonder, then, that a new generation of veterans finds the activity to be therapeutic. As a result, organizations are springing up across the country to promote fishing among our nation’s heroes.
Take A Soldier Fishing organizes group fishing expeditions and offers civilians a chance to let military members and veterans know how much they are appreciated by treating them to a day where the only stress is whether or not the fish are biting. Currently, there are chapters in Oregon, Florida, Texas and New York. Prospective volunteers, as well as veterans who’d like to fish, can sign up via an online form.
And in Maine, veteran fishing clubs are proliferating, with the new organization Back in the Maine Stream joining two others already in existence. Disabled Air Force vet Marc Bilodeu and Vietnam Marine Corps soldier Bob Pelletier founded the club with the goal of coordinating fishing expeditions among disabled service members. Their inspiration? Project Healing Waters, a national organization that plans fly fishing trips for active military personnel and veterans.
Before a fishing trip six years ago, Bilodeu told Deirdre Fleming of the Portland Press Herald, “I had been very discouraged. I couldn’t fish because of my disability. They dragged me out on a rock, put a fly rod in my hand. I was kind of miserable. It took me an hour to catch a 3-inch bass. Then it was so emotional, I cried like a baby. And I realized, I was back, and who was gonna stop me now?”
The problem was that Project Healing Waters only came to Maine once a year, so Pelletier and Bilodeu started Back in the Main Stream.
During the fishing trips, Pelletier told Fleming, “Marc and I rag on each other a lot. We can. We had one veteran who lost his hands. When he came out of the washroom I said, ‘You wash your hands?’ He goes, ‘Yup.’ But he hasn’t any. He knows where I’ve been. I know where he’s been. It’s really hard to explain to people who haven’t been in the military. They don’t understand. But I know the sacrifices he made.”
MORE: This Paralyzed Veteran Can Hunt and Fish Again, Thanks to the Generosity of His Community
When Veterans Need to Let Loose, These Volunteers Help Them Ride the Waves
When you picture a surfer dude, you probably think of Hawaiian shirts, beach bonfires, ukuleles and a carefree attitude toward life. All of which is the opposite of the image that comes to mind when you think of a brave veteran wounded while serving our country. But the recent Waves of Valor Surf Camp proved that both vets and surfers can hang 10 together.
Sponsored by Team Red, White & Blue and the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, the event took place at the Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach, California on July 19. In total, four surf camps are scheduled for this summer, and this is the second year that volunteers have offered surfing lessons to veterans.
How do veterans learn how to surf? Each is teamed with four volunteers: a surf captain and three others on duty to fetch boards, help the service members mount the surfboards and assist with swimming when needed.
During the Huntington Beach event, the 17th Street Surf Shop closed for business for the day so its employees could volunteer — helping people such as Navy veteran Goldie Nwachuku catch a wave.
At first, Nwachuku was afraid but managed to stand up on a surf board for the first time. “It’s really good to have a smile on my face. I haven’t smiled in a long time,” Nwachuku told Ethan Hawkes of the Orange County Register.
Ryan Lee, Air Force vet, told Hawkes that surfing, “really helps relieve my stress, and it also helps me connect with the veteran community here and with the other volunteers.”
The program has proved so successful that for next year, organizers are planning a three-day surf event that will bring former soldiers from across the country to participate.
Whether the surfers can get any of the vets to yell “kowabunga,” however, remains to be seen.
MORE: How Does Running Coast to Coast Help Veterans?
It’s Not Potato Salad, But This Crowdfunding Effort Aims to Keep A Disabled Vet in His Home
Clearly, America is a generous country. Where else would an Ohio man launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund his dream of creating a savory batch of potato salad and find more than 5,000 souls willing to help him with his quest — to the tune of more than $47,000?
If we as a nation can do that, surely we can rally behind a cause that’s even more worthy: Helping a disabled veteran keep a roof over his head.
Ross Dahlberg is an 82-year-old Korean War veteran who lost the home he lived in for 17 years while in the hospital recovering from triple bypass surgery. Dahlberg told Amanda Whitesell of the Livingston Daily that he fell behind on his mortgage payments after a divorce and several surgeries. He applied for financial assistance through the Michigan Homeowner Assistance Nonprofit Housing Corporation’s Step Forward program, but was denied due to a clerical error.
Joshua Parish, a veterans’ benefits counselor at the Livingston County Veteran Affairs office in Michigan, thought that what happened to Dahlberg wasn’t right. “It’s not just this veteran in this county that it’s happening to, it’s everywhere,” Parish said.
Parish began to fight for Dahlberg to keep his home, submitting a motion to prevent the house from auctioned off at the sheriff’s sale, while at the same time working to raise the $4,000 Dahlberg owed in back mortgage payments. The judge denied the motion, however, and the house sold to Day Glo LLC for $132,000 in March. Dahlberg has until September 26 to match that amount, or he’ll lose his home for good.
Parish has not given up, researching all the sources for veterans’ assistance he can find and setting up a GoFundMe account in June that so far has raised more than $8,000 — but remains well short of the funds needed. “It’s an incredible amount of money,” Dahlberg, who is wheelchair bound and suffers from diabetes, told Whitesell. “I would be astounded if we raised that much.”
It sounds like the time for Americans to unite behind this veteran. If we can put a man on the moon and finance an epic batch of potato salad, what’s to stop us from keeping this veteran in his home?
MORE: These Veterans Rallied to Save A Fellow Vet From The Cold
While Many Ignore the Plight of Veterans, This Motley VW Bug Is Calling Attention to It
Disabled veteran Scott Hicks’s 1965 Volkswagen Bug doesn’t conform to standard notions of automotive beauty. After all, it’s painted in a mélange of greens from mint to olive, has a rusty bumper and in the back window, a note is posted that reads: “Back Off It Doesn’t Go Any Faster!!!”
While the car isn’t your typical coveted hot rod, Hicks is using it to convey an important — and beautiful — message.
In response to his disgust over the recent revelations about the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) delays in treatment, which led to the deaths of dozens of veterans, Hicks launched a project — Inspire Veterans. “I was sick of hearing people talk about helping veterans but not doing anything to fix the problem,” Hicks told Dal Kasi of Fox Carolina.
His plan? The end of June, Hicks set out from Grants Pass, Oregon, in his Bug — named Patina — on a planned 10,000-mile road trip, stopping at veterans’ centers, war memorials, American landmarks, and VW car shows, to talk to anybody who’ll listen about the problems facing veterans today. As he makes his 38 planned stops, he invites local VW Bug owners to rally around Patina.
Hicks wants to call attention to the fact that 22 veterans commit suicide every day, a number he believes is exacerbated by the extensive wait times for appointments with VA doctors. And, as he notes in a video on his Inspire Veterans website, “that is the 2012 number, and the number is probably more like 24 veterans a day that are committing suicide, generally because of depressive disorders related to PTSD. That is a horrible number. I wish it wasn’t even one a day, but it’s a fact, and the government isn’t doing anything to help those soldiers that are coming back.”
Hicks is raising money to fund a documentary of this journey, which he says will capture veterans talking about their experiences and speaking about what kind of assistance they need. “Hopefully that will help the public and the government understand better what’s really going on…Most veterans don’t really like to speak out, but generally they’ll speak to another veteran. That’s why I’m doing this.”
So if you see a man driving a Bug of many colors and wearing a red-white-and-blue bandana while you’re out and about this summer, take a moment to listen and learn what you can do to help veterans.
MORE: How Does Running Coast-To-Coast Help Veterans?
Put Your Hands Together for the Heroes Competing in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games
You’ve heard of the Olympic Games. And you’re probably familiar with the Special Olympics and the Paralympics. But have you heard of the National Veterans Wheelchair Games?
The games, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Paralyzed Veterans of America, has grown every year to become the largest annual wheelchair sports competition in the world. This year, a record number of participants — 660 athletes — have registered to compete in 17 different events that will be held from August 12 to 17 in Philadelphia.
One of the athletes is new to his sport: Ellwood “Woody” Allen of Philadelphia. During the Vietnam war, Allen served in Army and was stationed for much of his service at Fort Benning in Georgia, where he was a behavior-science specialist helping veterans returning from the war cope with what they had witnessed, what they had lost and how they would rejoin the civilian world. Two years ago, Allen lost his leg due to an infection.
After his leg was amputated, Allen was the one who needed help. As a means of recovery, he began cycling using a borrowed bike from a veterans group that sponsors adaptive sports.
Meanwhile, a Disabled American Veterans (DAV) chapter in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, was looking to donate an adaptive tricycle to a deserving vet. A member of the DAV, Bill Pinkerton, told Kristin E. Holmes of the Philadelphia Inquirer that they decided to donate a trike because, “it gives you mobility, hand-eye coordination and it gets you outside and meeting people. After trauma, you need to get out.”
A counselor at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center connected the DAV with Allen, who rejoiced over receiving the red adaptive tricycle. “The fact that they were willing to help somebody, I hate to say I feel emotional, because we’re grown men and we’re not supposed to,” Allen told Holmes.
Allen will compete as a member of the Philly Phever team at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games. For him, victory will mean “not finishing last.”
MORE: Can Riding Tricycles Help These Injured Vets?