Annual Thanksgiving Meals for Veterans

WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA – The Disabled Veterans Committee on Housing held its annual “Thanksgiving Meals for the Veterans” event on Saturday, November 21. During the day’s long activities veterans in Winchester, Richmond, Williamsburg, and other areas were given turkeys and all of the trimmings so they would have be able to have the traditional meal to serve family members.

This year Disabled Veterans Committee on Housing partnered with the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation to bring a ray of sunshine to those veterans and their families. The gift of the Thanksgiving dinner is our thanks to those former military that have been there in the trenches and have kept us safe.

DISABLED VETERANS COMMITTEE ON HOUSING was established in June 2008 to assist disabled veterans in their efforts to obtain new affordable and accessible housing. This is an extremely important initiative as so many disabled veterans are not building new accessible homes, even though they have the benefits to do so, because:

• They do not know of a builder who specializes in this type of housing;
• Need help in deciding on the floor plan including the special features they need to accommodate their disability;
• Do not know how to obtain financing including grants and other forms of assistance they are entitled to; and
• Need assistance in locating and purchasing affordable land.

SAM SCHMIDT’S PARAYLSIS FOUNDATION: The Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation (SSPF) helps individuals overcome spinal cord injuries and other neurological disorders by funding scientific research, medical treatment, rehabilitation and technological advances. This research benefits stroke victims and people diagnosed with ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

SSPF funds its national Day at the Races program and quality of life grants to organizations throughout the country benefiting people with paralysis and other life challenges. It also provides college scholarships for people with spinal cord injuries and paralysis. The Foundation works tirelessly in its advocacy efforts both locally and nationally on behalf of the disabled. For more information visit: www.samschmidt.org.

We Need Your Help

We all at the Disabled Veterans Committee on Housing are working to eradicate veteran homelessness and ensure that all veterans have food each and every day. To this end we ask that you think about the veteran who has protected you and your family by … as of a report from the 131,000 homeless veterans is estimated in the nation.

Homeless U.S. veterans

• Estimated homeless veterans: 131,000
• Estimated homeless female veterans: 13,100
• Estimated post-9/11 veterans: 7,400
• Estimated number of female post-9/11 veterans: 740
• 12 percent of homeless veterans younger than 34 are women
• Jobless rate for post-9/11 veterans: 11.3 percent

Sources: Department of Veterans Affairs, Bureau of Labor Statistics and that is totally unacceptable …. sending your donation to the Disabled Veterans Committee on Housing, 147 Duwamish Trail Winchester, Virginia 22602-1316. If you know a veteran who is homeless or has needs please donate.

Here are the photos of the Thanksgiving Day event:

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You see here just a small number of veterans who we surprised! There was one veteran who couldn’t drive to the Committee so we met him on the road and provided his family with a Thanksgiving meal.

The Annual Thanksgiving Event is one way in which the Disabled Veterans Committee gives back to those who have given so much to keep us safe and free. There are no words to describe what a privilege it was to surprise the veterans and their families with the Turkey dinner and to receive their sincere thanks!

Our special thanks go out to the Lord Fairfax Food Bank and Martins Food Markets for their food donations. And, we can’t forget our volunteers (Chris Brown, Dan Kern, Rich Seely, Dick Seely, and Katherine Lewandowski) who made sure the food was picked up and distributed to all of the deserving families living in the Winchester, Martinsburg, West Virginia, Richmond, Yorktown and the Williamsburg areas

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our veterans who have served our country!