Volunteer with VFA and the Obama Team on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

HELP ORGANIZE A TEAM IN YOUR COMMUNITY TO PRINT AND DISTRIBUTE THE AMERICAN VETERANS’ AND SERVICEMEMBERS’ SURVIVAL GUIDE ON JANUARY 19TH, 2009, THE MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY OF SERVICE

On the eve of President-elect Obama’s historic Inauguration, our troops are still fighting two wars overseas and returning home to inadequate care, a cycle of repeated deployments with insufficient dwell time between tours, and the difficult task of ensuring that their combat-related needs are properly addressed by the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, their states, and communities.

VFA will be working to ensure that the incoming administration makes improving care for our troops and veterans a top priority. The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., however, has shown us that while government has the primary responsibility of tend to our nation’s war-related needs, we as citizens can make a big difference in own communities to help our fellow citizens. The power is in our hands as well.

With that in mind, 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. Specifically, the Presidential Inauguration Committee has asked Veterans for America to be part of this great volunteer effort. We, in turn, call upon you.

As you know, 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’re asking for you to lace yours up and take them down to your local Kinko’s, other copy shop, 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 churches, coffee shops, grocery stores, and any of the hundreds of other places where members of our military and their families live and gather.

BUILD A TEAM

VFA asks supporters across the country to build teams in their communities to copy and distribute the Survival Guide – I urge you to become the captain of a team in your community, or to join one that’s already been started in your community. Sign up and we’ll link you up with other members close by.

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Thank you for honoring our troops and veterans, as well as Dr. King’s legacy.

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