Serving Veterans Every Day


November 11, 2010

Every November 11, we as a nation celebrate Veterans Day. However, at Volunteers of America, we work year-round to help support and assist veterans and their families, and to show these brave men and women how much we appreciate their service.

Supporting veterans means advocating on their behalf while they are away, working to assist their families and helping them to transition back into the community when they return – through housing, counseling, job training and other assistance.

But we do not do this work alone. On October 27, 2010, Volunteers of America presented its 2010 Good Samaritan Award in Philanthropy to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in recognition of her legislative career dedicated to helping veterans and others in need. The Good Samaritan Award is presented each year to a person, program or organization that has made an extraordinary contribution of resources, time, energy and money to the betterment of their neighbors.

Murray has been a leading champion for our nation’s veterans and is the first woman to serve on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. She has worked tirelessly to ensure that service members with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury receive quality care. Murray also helped pass the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act and the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, as well as other legislation supporting veteran care. She has also worked to increase funding for homeless veterans. 

In accepting the award, Murray spoke about her ongoing efforts to assist veterans and members of the National Guard, and of the need to better serve women veterans, who now make up 12 percent of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Volunteers of America continues to respond to that need. On November 10, Volunteers of America Northern New England held a ribbon cutting for Arthur B. Huot Veteran Housing, its new transitional housing facility for homeless male and female veterans. This is the first facility of its kind in the state of Maine that can serve female veterans. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was on hand for this important opening.

Please make sure that that we remember our veterans – young and old, male and female – all year round. As our members of Congress begin to make plans for the 112th Congress, join us in making sure that we can continue to serve those who have served us. Visit www.voa.org/advocate.