When our country needed them our veterans answered the call to serve. Now Knights are being called to serve our veterans through a new program: “Serving Those Who Served.”
Our goal is to have an active corps of Knights serving as volunteers at every Veterans Administration medical facility in California.
Volunteers are needed at veteran’s medical facilities on a regular basis. Through the “Serving Those Who Served” program councils and assemblies are asked to form a corps of volunteers to meet the needs of our veterans on an ongoing basis.
Just some volunteer opportunities for Knights include:
Supporting the Catholic chaplains in their ministry of spiritual support to our Catholic patients
Providing reception and information services – working in reception areas to provide information to visitors
Providing transportation for veterans.
Helping make patients comfortable by distributing toiletries, sweaters and other items that help make veterans more comfortable
Arts and crafts – providing materials and programs that help veterans use artistic and creative skills
- Patient visiting
- Offering holiday celebrations – organizing parties for veterans
- Taking patients to ball games or performances when possible
- Hosting picnics, parties or recreation outings
Upon discharge from the VA facility some veterans find they have lost touch with friends and family. They need human companionship and a friendly, dependable K of C volunteer might be “just what the doctor ordered.”
Discharged veterans need compassionate, caring and committed individuals to:
- Help them access community events & services
- Share their time by visiting them, listening to them and talking with them
- Remember them on birthdays, holidays and other special occasions.
Sometimes councils and assemblies are not located close enough to a veteran’s medical facility to make regular efforts practical. However, they may still participate in and make a valuable contribution to the “Serving Those Who Served” program.
The possibilities are limited only by the imagination and the needs of the veterans. For instance:
Organize a drive to collect clothing, coats, gloves, pajamas, robes, toiletries, etc. for veterans
Organize program to provide rosaries, Bibles, Catholic religious literature, and Chapel items like Mass bells, Easter candle holders, altar lines
Volunteer as Eucharistic Ministers to take Communion to bed patients
Collecting or developing a plan to buy television sets, VCRs, DVD players or stereo equipment to donate for use in medical facility common areas
Collect video and audio tapes, books, DVD and CDs for the facility
Develop a plan to donate personal computers and computer programs, printers (as well paper and ink) for use by veterans
Travel to a VA facility to put on a special program or entertainment for patients
Plan and conduct a special outing, if possible, for veterans such as a picnic, a trip to the ball park or a special community event
Plan a special holiday event and travel to the facility to conduct it for the veterans or adopt veterans at a distant facility and remember them regularly with cards and letters.
California has Eight Major Veterans Hospitals in two regions (21 Northern & 22 Southern California). Some of these Hospitals have as many at 35 sub-clinics, ranging from outpatient clinics to small in house facilities. Locate a facility near your council and get involved with them in some way.
Program Chairman
- Name:Mark Malebranche