LVMAC Tidbit — Rotary Club of Bethlehem Falls In to Help Our Local Veterans and Their Families

Bethlehem Rotary Tastes&Tunes Flyer 5Oct2014The Rotary Club of Bethlehem, via a fundraiser in the Fall (5 October), has decided to support the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council in its efforts to help military veterans who could use special assistance. The Council is thankful to them for their willingness to help us in serving this important segment of our society and our local community; and their effort neatly dovetails with needs being generated by some of our alliance efforts. (more…)

LVMAC Tidbits — Will It Be a ‘Short’ Summer? Help the Homeless

Summer approaches.  Your neighbors are anticipating seeing your knobbly knees once again.  Surprise them and beautify the community at the same time.  Donate your shorts for use by the VALOR Clinic Foundation and help a homeless person (with better knees).  Don’t forget the T-Shirts from Hawaii, either.

Hope for Veterans and the Lehigh Valley Business Group are assisting VALOR Clinic Foundation in collecting clothing items for its stand downs.  You can drop off items to them directly at our monthly Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council meetings or at one of their drop-off locations below.  Simple kindness matters. (more…)

Forward Observer — Their American Dream is Homelessness?

One Way You Can Help Your Homeless Veterans Locally – Find Them, Gather Them

LVMAC Poster Art 2005Not all who are homeless deserve their circumstance. Good families are affected nowadays. We of the Lehigh Valley are a hardy people, but living on the streets or in pioneer camps should not be our final option. It is an unfortunate reality nonetheless.

Pioneer Camp (courtesy of Clinic Valor Foundation)It seems doubly a shame for our community when one who has honorably served and actually fought for his or her country is found in such a condition. Whether it is this veteran’s pride or behavior, or a combination of both, that has led to the situation should not matter to us – we can always find a plausible excuse for inaction.

As the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council (LVMAC) activates its new Lehigh Valley Homeless Veterans Action Committee to attack veteran’s homelessness as a regional problem, one of its participants is already trying to get those in the most extreme of circumstances in from the “cold.”  VALOR Clinic Foundation, a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit now working its way down from the Bangor area into the wider Lehigh Valley, has taken up the mission of establishing routine stand downs in the Lehigh Valley. (more…)

LVMAC Tidbit — Looking for a Few Good Women

HFHLV Women's Build 2013No, it is not Marine recruiting we’re talking about, but instead a Habitat for Humanity of the Lehigh Valley request for veterans as construction volunteers.

They seek about 10 to 20 women who are veterans or in the Guard and Reserves for a day’s worth of construction during its Women’s Blitz Build on St. James St. in Bethlehem expected to occur from August 13 through 24, this year. (more…)