Serve Veterans NOW Food Pantry helps Veteran

Today, our “Case of the Week” comes from our Liberty OH office.

A veteran had been referred to us from the VA Clinic right up the street from our office. He served in Vietnam in the Navy. He said he was what would be called a Navy Seal today. He went on many missions that even today he is forbidden to talk about. During his time, he was sprayed with Agent Orange.

Last year he got a call from the VA in DC to question him about his service in Vietnam and any health issues he was having. They advised him to go to the nearest VA to get checked out. He went, found several health concerns, applied for service related disability and was denied! They told him they couldn’t find his records, they were burned in a fire.

He was very distraught. Our office listened to him, helped him with our Serve Veterans NOW Food Pantry tote of groceries as well as guidance on how to proceed with his claim. He was very thankful and said it made a real difference “to know that someone out there cares about us veterans”. The grant from Walmart for the grocery totes has touched another veteran with some real help to get through the day and the days ahead.

Clearwater Veteran’s Thank You

This week, we bring you another “Case of the Week” from our Sarasota Florida office as told by Bob Graham, our Regional Manager.

After spending a lot of money on medical issues, this Clearwater veteran was advised by his case manager to contact us on his overdue electric bill, which he was unable to cover. He was about to go into the VA hospital for surgery which worried him (his VA psychologist says that he has PTSD, “generalized anxiety disorder and Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia”) as he might be returning home with no lights available. I guaranteed the payment to Duke Energy and it was promptly paid, with assistance from a local Sarasota resident who wanted to help as well. The vet says “you’ll never know how much you helped out when I really needed it!”

A Visitor’s Donation to a Local Veteran

This week, our “Case of the Week” comes from our Sarasota office. Regional Manager Bob Graham wants to share something that happened just last week at their office.

He wrote: This is a little different this time as it is not about a vet we helped but an interesting story I think. Our Sarasota office is next to a medical services place with erratic hours. Last week a woman came to our office to ask what I knew about the hours (not much!). She saw the “Veterans Outreach” on our door and asked what we did for veterans. I explained our non-profit status and our efforts in assisting veterans unable to meet their financial obligations. The phone rang with another veteran asking for our help and I invited her to listen so she really “got it.” The vet had a “past due notice” from Duke Energy and we can cover most of it within our usual limits but the full amount would be over it. I told the veteran what we could do and he was tremendously grateful but my visitor asked how much we were short of the full amount and wrote out a check on the spot to cover the gap, promising to return monthly whenever possible to make further donations!

Our Liberty Ohio IT Specialist

This week, we have a “Case of the Week” from our Liberty Ohio office. We have known this veteran for many years, he has helped us with our IT needs, often for free. He has a wife and family, and he works as an IT Specialist. He has been wanting to get a certification in PLC Programming so that he would have greater employment opportunities. However, he hasn’t been able to manage it financially. He came to Bob, our Services Director, and discussed the problem. Bob was able to use his contacts and wrote letters to help this veteran get accepted at the training facility, with most of the costs covered by grants Bob helped to locate. The veteran is very grateful, as you can imagine.