This is who we are: DAV Community Impact Day continues to grow

To know me is to know the passion I have for volunteering and serving veterans. When I see a veteran helped—whether it’s with their VA benefits or because someone has lent a helping hand—it reminds me of the good that exists in our country.

That’s why DAV Community Impact Day has become so special to me.

Over the past three years, I’ve witnessed a spark of an idea become a movement that’s doubled in participation each year because of you.

The numbers themselves are impressive—more than 2,000 of you joined us this year—but numbers don’t tell the full story. Real understanding comes from hearing about and seeing the results of your work.

So many of you shared your stories and photos. Thank you to all of you who sent them in.

Jeremy Gonyer from Chapter 19 in Milwaukee shared the spring cleaning volunteers from his chapter did for an Army veteran in their city.

“The amount of work was daunting for him to do on his own,” Jeremy said. “With tools in hand, volunteers raked, cut dead branches, dug up weeds and filled bags with debris for 3 hours. Now he can sit in his refreshed yard and enjoy it while reading a book or just relaxing.”

I say those volunteers did more than refresh a yard—they restored dignity.

No tally of numbers can measure what that means for that veteran.

We heard about a similar effort in Lincoln, Nebraska. Volunteers with Chapter 7 and Auxiliary Unit 7 there rebuilt a fence for DAV member and former benefits advocate Mike Webb. The old fence was damaged by a storm, so Mike, a wheelchair user with an ALS diagnosis, wasn’t able to let his service dog outside on his own.

This fence gave him some of his independence back.

“Mike was so happy and grateful that we could do this for him,” Chapter 7 Adjutant Melissa Allen said. “In fact, he stayed outside in his chair with us the entire time.”

Mike and his wife, Monica, who is also a veteran, provided the supplies and materials. The chapter provided the volunteers (and the pizzas). Three and a half hours was all it took to make a difference for that family.

“I’m so proud to be a fellow veteran with you all,” Monica said.

Food was a popular theme this year. Many chapters held cookouts, breakfasts and luncheons.

Baltimore Chapter 1 and Auxiliary Unit 1 volunteers spent the day with veteran residents at the Maryland Center for Veteran Education and Training, treating them to a barbeque. The center offers housing support, counseling, medical care and job training to help veterans who’ve experienced homelessness get back on their feet.

Chapter 56 in Columbus, Georgia, went to the Tuskegee VA Medical Center in Alabama and hosted a day party and cookout for veterans enrolled in the Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans program there.

Volunteers with DAV Chapter 16 and Auxiliary Unit 16 in Orlando, Florida, hosted a lunch cookout for more than 50 veterans at the Cascade Heights Retirement Community in Longwood. After the lunch, they held a ceremony for the World War II veterans living at the facility.

Sharing a meal is a simple, yet powerful, way to connect with others and remind them they are seen. But it’s not the only way we saw connections. Honolulu Chapter 1 brought back its buddy checks for this year—calling other veterans to check in on them. Members of DAV Chapter 12 and Auxiliary Unit 12 in Klamath Falls, Oregon, wrote and mailed letters to all their members as an outreach effort.

“Within two days of mailing the letters, we started receiving feedback from local members,” said Kari-Jo Parisi, Chapter 12’s adjutant. “This may not have been a traditional community impact project, but it did have the positive impact of letting our members know that we care and are here for them.”

What’s great about what volunteers in Honolulu and Klamath Falls did is that they showed you don’t have to know how to repair a fence or cook to make a difference. Simply making an effort to show care and compassion toward a veteran is important work.

Finding a way to remind veterans they’re appreciated is what inspired high school student Jacie Jarrells from Dunlow, West Virginia, to volunteer. She heard that the Hershel “Woody” Williams VA Medical Center in Huntington, West Virginia, wanted snack cakes for their patients. As a self-professed snack cake aficionado, Jacie put together a fundraiser, using the money to buy dozens of Little Debbie cakes to donate to the VA.

“This experience for me was very rewarding because I know how just these little cakes make me feel, so sharing this joy with others makes me smile,” Jarrells said. “Veterans are the foundation of our country, and I believe that we forget too often just how much they have sacrificed in their lives for this country.”

Every story I hear fills me with pride. So many people have seen the needs of veterans in their community and found a way that matches their gifts, talents and time to fill those needs.

Many of you have continued to serve because of your Community Impact Day experience. That’s a powerful testament to what spending just a couple of hours serving veterans can do—it can become part of who you are.

I encourage those of you looking to stay connected to visit volunteerforveterans.org. There, you’ll find all the information you need for DAV volunteer opportunities in your area.

Lastly, I want to thank Sinclair Media Group for their partnership with DAV Community Impact Day this year. As part of their ongoing Sinclair Cares initiative, they used their national network of local television news stations to share the story of Community Impact Day with their viewers. This put the event into the national spotlight and highlighted dozens of stories of your service for veterans—like a fishing outing in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, for veterans including 101-year-old Marine Corps Women’s Reserve veteran Bernice Trotter who served during World War II.

Several of the stories—like the fishing outing—are featured in this online special they produced. I encourage you to watch and share it with others. It’s a great representation of who we are as an organization.

To each of you who volunteered, thank you for what you do. Lives are changed because of you.