As you probably know, President-elect Obama has called on all Americans to honor Dr. King by participating in the National Day of Service on January 19th, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and the Presidential Inauguration Committee has asked Veterans for America to be part of this great volunteer effort.
VFA recently released The American Veterans’ and Servicemembers’ Survival Guide, a free downloadable 599-page book that covers everything returning servicemembers need to know about serving as an active-duty member or being a veteran in the current age – from obtaining help with education or housing to getting benefits and treatment for psychological wounds of war and traumatic brain injury, the signature injuries of the post 9/11 period.
The New York Times recently lauded the Guide as “a powerful updating of that old tradition” of veterans helping veterans. The Times also stated that when it comes to navigating the maze of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, “it is heartening to see that one promising form of help has indeed arrived: a 599-page guide to veterans’ issues.”
While the book is available for free download, this information will not reach enough of the hundreds of thousands of returning troops – and their families – that need it if it stays primarily in the digital realm.
We all know the power of boots on the ground. That’s why we’ve asked volunteers to lace theirs up and take them down to Kinko’s, other copy shop, or local businesses with printing capacity, and print copies of the Survival Guide, and bring them to American Legion Halls, VFW posts, Vet Centers, on-base commissaries and PX’s, and National Guard Family Assistance Centers in your community. You can also print and distribute single-page flyers with instructions for downloading the Guide that can be distributed at these locations as well as at places of worship, coffee shops, grocery stores, and any of the hundreds of other places where members of our military and their families live and gather.
There are teams meeting on Monday in Eureka and Camino. Details:
Eureka
Time: Monday, January 19 from 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Host: Jeff Peskoff
Contact Phone: 719-332-4225
Location:
Fedex-Kinko’s (Eureka, CA)
2021 5th St # C
Eureka, CA 95501
Camino
Time: Monday, January 19 from 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Host: Leslie Vandever
Location:
2900 Proudy Lane
Camino, CA 95709
If you’d like to sign up to volunteer at these events you can do so at their pages on the Presidential Inauguration Committee site. (Eureka, Camino)
If you’d like to start a team in your area, sign up on VFA’s National Service Day page.
I hope that you participate in this, or any other volunteering activities to honor Dr. King’s legacy for National Service Day.