Hand Made Blankets Sent From Heaven

Veterans’ Outreach is a very busy place on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays every week.  We love what we do and feel great satisfaction in knowing that we are making a positive impact for the veterans that come to us for help.  We never know what the day might bring, but we always know that good works are happening all around us. Read more

“I Served” Resource Fair for Veterans.

“I Served” Resource Fair for Veterans

Veterans’ Outreach was invited to attend a recent veteran’s resource fair in North Canton Ohio.  It was a well-organized, highly endorsed by attendees, excellent event.  There were dozens of organizations and resource providers stationed throughout the MAPS Air Museum.  It was a great backdrop with antique planes hanging from the ceiling and other artifacts displayed throughout the building.  Read more

Case of the Week 7-11-22

Pull Resources Together for Suffering Veteran

A veteran came to our office for help with a problem that he couldn’t face alone.  After we took care of him, he was so grateful he wanted to give back.  He wanted to donate a hospital bed.  We were unable to take it because we are crunched for space, but we told him we’d keep his information.  

Two weeks later, a veterans’ caseworker called, said she was frantically searching for a hospital bed for a veteran that was in stage 4 cancer.   We were able to coordinate with the donor, the family of the veteran in need, and other agencies to get the hospital bed delivered. The family members assembled it, and as a bonus, we provided the veteran’s wife with a walker.

This is the kind of work we do every day, and we are grateful to be able to do it.

If I Can Dream

I believe we all have dreams…certain things that we want in life, maybe, for ourselves or for someone else.  How many of us wish that they had a MILLION dollars? That would solve everything, right? Wrong!

Many come into riches only to blow it away, often accompanied by despair, heartache, and worse.  Choices in life have consequences, and our lives are determined by our choices.  However, it isn’t that simple, sometimes the choices we make are under duress or influences outside of our understanding.

I experienced the homeless plight, firsthand, while visiting San Francisco many years ago.  That visit changed my life.  What stunned me was many were veterans!  It was unthinkable that our Nation’s Heroes were left to rot by the trolley tracks. The more I looked, the more I saw; homelessness was and is a big problem.  I called the mayor and wanted to ask how that this could happen? No resources, I was told, to devote to that problem.  The only action that was explained to me was that the city kept track on how they were found deceased!

That moment in time for me – the realization that horror was going on in plain sit, made me feel helpless.  So, I decided to do something about, is to create and start a charity that worked with veterans to keep them from becoming homeless or help them out of their homeless status.  Starting up a charity is a time consuming and lifelong endeavor.  I know, for I have 28 years of my life involved in this MISSION and I am grateful.

As we built our base and made connections, we learned how to help.  Veterans’ Outreach has helped veterans tens of thousands of times with financial assistance, food boxes, free apparel and household goods, and lots of TLC.  Yet, we see veterans that have issues with transitioning to civilian life and end up in trouble, trouble that could destroy the rest of their lives.  That bothered me, I wanted to do more.

When I least expected it, the LORD shined a “beacon of hope”, out of the great state of Kentucky.  A volunteer named Roger donated 110.5 acres of APPALACHIA that had been in his family for 100 years.

He asked me if I thought that I could use it to help veterans. I mulled over the possibilities for the best ways to help these hapless warriors.  Well, my dream was to help rid the nation of its homeless veterans, especially.  Giving their lives back was the mission.

My idea was to build a retreat where they could together and live for 6 months and work towards a deserved future.  Work the land and reconnect to nature, clear away the past through various therapies, build for the future with training that suits their skills.  Not just to have them expire in a cubical with the bare necessities of life, but to give them a way to share the American Dream, that they risked their lives for.  That is my DREAM.   The AMERICAN DREAM doesn’t have to be out of reach for them or be dead to them, with this MISSION.

Spiritually, Emotionally, Strengthening, Knowledge, Job Security, and Social Developments are all part of what we need, and should have, to navigate the elements of a successful life. I call it, “Heroes’ Passage, A Retreat for Veterans”.  You can read more about this project on our website veteransoutreach.org

Below are the lyrics to a song that I find inspirational, and I believe will be the theme song for this project which could be the “Beacon of Hope” for many of our veterans.

If you’ve never heard this song, check it out.

“If I Can Dream” by Elvis Presley

There must be lights burning brighter somewhere.

Got to be birds flying higher in a sky more blue.

If I can dream of a better land

Where all my brothers walk hand in hand

Tell me why, oh why, oh why can’t my dream come true?

 

There must be peace and understanding… sometime.

Strong winds of promise that will blow away

All the doubt and fear.

If I can dream of a warmer sun

Where hope keeps shining on everyone

Tell me why, oh why, oh why won’t that sun appear?

 

We’re lost in a cloud

With too much rain.

We’re trapped in a world

That’s troubled with pain.

But as long as a man

Has the strength to dream

He can redeem his soul and fly!

 

Deep in my heart there’s a trembling… question,

Still I am sure that the answer’s gonna come somehow.

Out there in the dark, there’s a beckoning candle,

And while I can think, while I can talk,

While I can stand, while I can walk,

While I can dream, please let my dream

Come true, right now.

Let it come true right now.

If you would like to help with this project, donations….100% of goes to this project. If you have a talent that you feel that you can help with? Please contact us. We thank you for your interests in making this dream for all veterans come true.

www.veteransoutreach.org

[email protected]

330-755-5792 (office)

330-398-2904 (cell)

God Chasers food donation.

“God Chasers” Ride for Veterans

A small group rallied to help veterans overcome hunger.  The cost to ride in this event was canned goods for veterans.  Thanks to God Chasers’ Rev. McNeal, the riders, and Five Branches Smokehouse veterans received some good food to take home.

Food insecurity among veterans has been on the rise, especially now for those living on a fixed income and fighting inflation.  Every donation is appreciated and makes a difference in a veteran’s daily life.

THANK YOU!