GFWC Citizenship in Action Program

 

Celebrate opportunities for good citizenship on Veteran's Day, Nov. 11.

As GFWC clubwomen we all need to get to the polls and vote.

Suggest that clubs:

• Encourage other clubwomen, neighbors, friends, and family members to do the same.
• Form a group of drivers to help get the elderly or those not able to drive to the polls. 
• Contact your local nursing homes or retirement homes to see how you can help.
• Contact your local high schools to see if they have a program to get all 18 year olds registered to vote.

As you prepare for Veteran’s Day, find and identify local women veterans and send their information to the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, Inc (WIMSA).  

Suggest that clubs:

• Recognize your local women veterans the week preceding Veteran’s Day.
• Ask a woman veteran to speak at a club meeting.
• Request that your mayor proclaim that the week as “Women Veterans’ Recognition Week.”
• Make sure your local newspaper honors them as well.
• Follow the lead of one GFWC state citizenship chairman who is going to issue a challenge to every club in her state to register all women veterans in their communities with WIMSA!  Recognize the dedication and patriotism of all of women veterans by participating.

Traumatic brain injuries are the signature wound of the War on Terror.   The 10 in 10 Project has been developed by the Brain Injury Association. They have a Brain Injury Recovery Kit, which is designed to help our “warriors” suffering from TBIs with the day-today- challenges in recovery, while building confidence and independence. 

The Heart of a Marine Foundation exists solely to support service members and their families from all branches of the United States Military. Over the last two and a half years, they have sent countless care packages to deployed military, as well as 1,000 orthopedic canes to injured veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Their most recent contribution arrived at Hines VA Hospital in Chicago; 20 computers, including 5 laptops, and 20 professional versions of Aphasia Software, designed to promote speech, language, and cognitive development to victims of stroke and TBIs. They are in the process of supplying more computers and Aphasia software to four more VA hospitals. Their goal is to get the computers and software to every VA trauma center in the country.

Sew Much Comfort is a nationally recognized non-profit organization providing adaptive clothing free of charge, to wounded service men and women at every military hospital in the United States, Lansthul, Germany, and at Combat Surgical Hospitals overseas.  Their adaptive clothing was designed with input from troops and medical personnel to ensure that their needs were met. 

Many veterans are returning from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries in the War on Terror with serve, life-altering injuries.  These injuries include loss of one or more limbs, varying in severity of paralysis and traumatic brain injuries. Many of them require more surgeries and do not have the financial means to purchase a home, especially given the high cost of real estate in much of the country. Often, the veteran’s spouse or parent has to quit his/her job in order to be with the veteran during the lengthy recovery process, putting great financial strain on top of emotional strain. The organization, Homes for Our Troops, raises donations of money, land, building materials, and professional labor, and then coordinates the process of building a new home or adapting an existing home for handicapped accessibility, all at no cost to the veteran. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT ORGANIZATIONS HELPING TROOPS AND THEIR FAMILIES
» Fisher House 
» Soldier Angels
» Coupons for Military Families Overseas

—Becky Weber (Ill.), GFWC Citizenship in Action Program Chairman