Veterans’ Outreach of Florida is saying thanks and farewell to Bob Graham, the Regional Manager for 10 years.

He started his position on his 80th birthday and ended it on his 90th birthday, dedicating his entire Octogenarian years helping veterans.  Personally, he is proud to say, that he has helped over 2,800 fellow veterans with financial assistance needs!  All the while keeping the overhead to an outstanding 17%!  A 30% overhead is considered GREAT for charities. He basically was almost a one-man ARMY…that is the way he liked it…keep the costs down!

He hails from a small village called Pelham Manor, NY.  His life has been extraordinary for he has visited 98 countries, lived in 5 countries and 3 continents!  He is the youngest of 4 siblings, all have passed and the oldest at 98, just recently!

He studied International Business and traveled for work. His military experience was short lived but intriguing as he was selected for the service of counter intelligence, he was stationed in NY where his commander said “all the bad guys were”.  He was a plain clothes man, hardly wore a military uniform and liked that very much. You could say that Bob was part of the origin of Homeland Security. 

One of the places that he lived was Hong Kong for 10 years and one of the other homes he made was in London for a spell, which he said was his favorite because the English were so very friendly.  The Royals were using some of the products that he represented so he ended up on their guest list for Garden Parties!   His wife, June, loved the Garden Parties and according to Bob became quite an expert of hosting grand Garden Parties as well.

He retired twice in his journeys and his children ordered him home.  He landed in Sarasota and thought that he would relax until he saw an ad from Veterans’ Outreach. He said that he would give it a go. He turned out to be our best Fund Raiser!

He has also done TV Shows, Speaking Engagements, and Radio to promote the mission of Veterans’ Outreach.  The biggest part of his position and what he loved the most was helping every veteran in their dire strait.  He was energized by the satisfaction of helping brothers and sisters from the service.  Veterans’ Outreach couldn’t be more proud of our warrior, who gave up his 80’s to help fellow vets. Matter of fact, in his own office, he had a heart attack a couple years back. You would think that after he recovered, that he would retire then!

A couple weeks later?  He was back helping veterans!  Bob will always be a part of the fabric of Veterans’ Outreach and the outstanding services that he provided to hurting veterans.

Bob’s rich baritone voice will still be available for talks at Clubs, Organizations, Media, and other engagements to keep ringing the Bell for Veterans’ Outreach’s Mission!

Bob, it was an honor to work with you, your commitment to the success of Veterans’ Outreach mission was inspirational.  Godspeed. . .

“A veteran is still a veteran, by any other name, just like a ROSE!”  I wrote that almost three decades ago when I first started developing and building the organization.  I wanted to plant my feet firmly in a mission where every vet was treated equal.

The soldiers that shared a fox hole together didn’t care who had their back or what affiliation of faith, race, gender, or political view they had.  We need each other! Especially in this nation, the United States of America!  Has a nice ring…UNITED!

The Pandemic nearly brought us to our knees!  We needed each other, for we are all in the same foxhole. The enemy being COVID!  Still, with that invisible enemy, we worked together and stayed together to fight this PANDEMIC.  Sure, we had glitches in our society, racial, political, civil unrest and disobedience.  But everyone can agree that 2020 was a “hell of a year”!

Dwelling on the negatives is counterproductive to our mental and physical health. It is necessary that we ponder the positives, which I choose to do!  Now, before I move on; please keep in your prayers, those folks and families that have lost loved ones, their businesses, jobs, and over all the pain that they have endured.

Oddly, some good came out of this nightmare. My family has had some good tidings.  My wife and I sold a couple problem properties that we owned.  Plus, the Pandemic changed the way many of us work – it is now from home.  Due to those changes, two of our three children and their families have moved to the north from the south. They were nine to eleven hours away from home. Our one son, The Army Captain and his wife, bought a house twenty-five minutes south of us with his two children and one on the way! The other is our only daughter, her husband and two sons purchased a ranch, 40 minutes north of us.

The charity has survived the Pandemic so far, even though we lost half of our income and half of our employees and volunteers.  We had to cancel thirty-eight out of forty events.  But, we are still performing our mission of helping a great deal of veterans in need.

So, no matter how hard we have to look, there is some good in all bad!

For Instance:

∙         As economies have ground to a halt, so has fossil fuel usage. Carbon emissions are set to decrease by 8% in 2020 as the corona-virus pandemic causes the biggest shock to the global energy system in over 70 years, according to the International Energy Agency.

∙         The speed and advancement of medicine is unprecedented. Opening the doors to cures of other communicable diseases or debilitating conditions.

∙         Supermarket cashiers, shelf-stackers and delivery drivers are not generally thought of as heroes. But the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the essential roles played by key workers who we all depend on.

∙         The economy is robust, which is a miracle, with the millions of people out of work, the millions of businesses gone, and the pandemic funds going out, but the economy is still rolling out!

∙         Community spirit, despite the fact that most people are shut away in their homes, many communities have never been closer.

There are many other positives that are out there.  We have to hold tight on that and we all will get through this with each other. The vaccinations are being distributed, by three or more pharmaceuticals now.

This time last year, I wrote in my emails and memos my personal reflections on what was in store for us in 2020!  I proclaimed that that was the year our nation was going to become more FOCUSED! Yea…that sounds about right…We had to do a whole lot of focusing, didn’t we?

But now with 2021, I am hopeful that this monster will be put asunder!  Remember, we are all in that fox hole together. Please, reflect on our veterans and their ongoing needs and help, because of their time in a very different fox hole. We must learn from that. “One for All, and All for One!”

Lastly, please consider donating to our mission, you can help an impacted Veteran with a sponsorship pledge of $25 a month! God Bless the USA!  Donate anything that you can through veteransoutreach.org

Hey Folks,

Merry Christmas to all! has been one “Hell” of a year, God Bless us all, as we continue to try to survive.  At this point, we have lost 1/2 as many loved ones as we lost during WWII!  The Christmas Cheers will be labored, the Merry Christmas greetings will be muted from our mandated masks, Christmas Carols will be rare and possibly illegal, and large family gatherings will also be illegal or fine-able events.  So with all of the wishes I have for you and my fellow AMERICANS…We are LESS if we forget! Like Pearl Harbor…”Lest We Forget!” My dad always said.  This Letter was Posted in the Columbus Dispatch and received reads from almost 12,000 folks.

That DAY my dad faced SATAN, for this was HELL, for 90 minutes! We survive…that’s what we do!

Dad survived attack and saved many others! Especially, one stands out!

Attack happened before 8 AM on Sunday, December 7th 1941!!!

William Gordon Ely was born in Gallipolis, where he worked on the family farm when he was just 8 years old. Dad later faced the Depression with his family and joined the service at 17 when he lied about his age.

He was finally stationed at Pearl Harbor after touring the South Pacific and wrote to his mom that he found paradise, bragging about catching a 40-pound octopus and having a barbecue on the beach with the guys. Just before 8 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, “Bill” was on the porch of the barracks, because of an upset stomach from cucumber salad the night before, which saved his life.

The airfields were the first attacked and more than 200 men were lost there. Bill was a paramedic, so he was racing off in his ambulance truck just trying to get away from the Japanese aircraft, or Zeros, which were strafing him on both sides. His ambulance truck crashed in a burning crater, where a bomb just landed. In spite of his own injuries, wrapped temporarily, he was told to leave the dead and get the wounded to the hospital.

For three days his adrenaline kept him moving him. He did these rescues without sleep He carted as many of the soldiers to Hickam Fields Hospital as possible, even though he had to line up a great deal of them stacked outside, for there was no room left. He dove into the burning oil slicked waters of the Harbor, rescuing the injured. Too many to count! The attack lasted a total of 90 minutes and left 2,400 dead and 1,100 wounded and more.

Later, he found himself administering blood and glucose constantly to, especially, one critically wounded man, who was so badly burned. Dad would change his bandages, administered fluids to him, and even slept with the man, to keep him warm, so as he wouldn’t go into shock. That man’s mom wrote a letter to my dad thanking him for saving her son’s life.

The letter was later shown to the Red Cross and they started a blood drive using the importance of that story. Bill went on to be a founder of the “Pearl Harbor Survivors”, Columbus chapter, and co-founder of eight other chapters. He left in his will a major donation to the Motts Military Museum to help with the expansion of the new wing where his Pearl Harbor coat and memorabilia are on display.

“Lest we forget,” Dad, you are part of history!

John Ely, President of Veterans’ Outreach, Youngstown, Ohio

My Dad before the bomb took place!

This picture was 6 months before my Dad passed in march 2004. He was an Honored Guest at The West Point Society Luncheon. Standing next to him was Russell Paley West Point President, and Brigadier General John Jack Nicholson, Undersecretary of 2003 The Secretary was the Guest Speaker that day! My dad was showing off his Pearl Harbor Wallet!

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LIBERTY, Ohio (WYTV) – You don’t have to be a veteran to help veterans. One man from Liberty and his wife have been helping out local veterans for years.

John Ely isn’t a veteran, but he is familiar with the needs of veterans. His father survived in Pearl Harbor and his brother suffers from PTSD from his service in Vietnam.

John and his wife Teri run the Veterans’ Outreach organization in Liberty. It started over 25 years ago when John took a trip to San Francisco.

“That’s where I experienced homelessness that was beyond my imagination. I didn’t even know it existed and I found out a lot of them were veterans that were homeless,” John said.

If a veteran needs clothes, they can turn to Veterans’ Outreach. Food, Veterans’ Outreach. Short on cash to cover utilities, you guessed it, Veterans’ Outreach.

They serve over 100 local veterans at their local facility each month, but their impact reaches much further than the Mahoning Valley.

“We’re registered in six states right now but we’re hoping it will be a lot more than that in the next 10 years, depending on our development,” John said.

It started with helping one veteran, then Teri helped to file the paperwork to set up their non-profit organization.

“So I see them come in and when they leave, they’re carrying large amounts of clothes or a big box of food and they’re getting the help they came here for and they’re smiling. We put up a case of the week on our website and Facebook, I don’t know if you saw that, but we highlight one case a week and there are so many rewarding things,” Teri said.

So the need for donations is greater than ever.

John’s right-hand man is “Mr. Bob.” He meets with everyone who walks into Veterans’ Outreach. It’s his job to educate each veteran on the benefits available to them.

“Most of them don’t know what all the resources are, but we have some that do know everything that’s out there and they help us refer them to other people,” said Bob Julian, service director.

Veterans’ Outreach always welcomes donations and volunteers.

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