Ending Our Year With Thank You
Operation Veteran and Caregiver Support is a nonprofit organization that serves the mission of “Connecting Veterans, their caregivers and families to the resources earned, empowering them to utilize such resources, in an effort to Transform their quality of life.” We are a resource organization that helps veterans find the right services to meet their needs from basics such as medical care, claims assistance, food and shelter to an infinite extension of services such as service dogs, smoke detectors, knitting groups, yard work and much more.
As a new veteran nonprofit organization at the beginning of the pandemic, we have experienced many challenges to meet or exceed our mission. Operation Veteran and Caregiver Support began as a planted seed in early 2019 when a couple of business partners noted veterans just did not know of the benefits, they had earned serving our country. They connected with the wife and caregiver of a disabled veteran whom they felt could assist such veterans. From there the three worked to host a simple outreach event in an effort to provide a proof-of-concept measure. The end of May 2019 immediately following the tornadoes, we found ourselves coming to the aid of the victims in north Dayton, assisting two Vietnam Veterans. At this point the business partners inquired why we were not working on becoming a
nonprofit. The end of August 2019 the group filed through the state of Ohio to become a legally recognized organization, providing for the application to become a recognized nonprofit. We received our 501c3 the end of February 2020, right as the nation shuttered. This left us in a quandary of sorts on fundraising as well as serving our veteran and caregiver community. We are resilient and resourceful and as such we sought ways to work around the
hurdles by partnering with many in the community, one on one. In late March 2020 we launched our “no contact door drops” of Panera Breads, groceries, toiletries and cleaning supplies. Utilizing only social media, community referrals and word of mouth, we were able to assist many families. As the region began to reopen, we witnessed a decline in the need and at this time only are offering the Panera bread deliveries as donations are available.
Thanksgiving 2020 we partnered with Fields of Grace Worship Center to deliver community dinners hot to our veterans and their families in the county, delivering 78 meals. Combined with that delivery we also partnered with the Miami County Food Insecurities network and delivered 14 Shared Harvest grocery packages while serving a total of 19 households. Christmas 2020 we planned to serve ten families with a holiday meal package as well as gifts for their children, what we did not expect were additional last-minute partnerships that enabled our organization to reach 17 families! What a blessing! Rolling into 2021, our board knew we needed to increase our outreach and work on raising funds to continue to exceed our mission. As such we have hosted a few fundraisers including the Sugar Waffle booth at the Piqua 4 th of July events, Chipotle and Buffalo Wings and Rings Dine to Donate. We have partnered with several veteran service organizations throughout the county as well as being awarded grants from the Piqua Community and Miami County Foundations. We also hosted our First Annual Golf Scramble at Echo Hills the end of August.
As we bring our second year to an end, we wanted to thank so many people and felt compelled to write today to give a snapshot of who we are and what we are doing in an effort to also acknowledge all who have impacted our veteran community. Operation Veteran and Caregiver Support would like to take the time to share with you our gratitude for the support of many in our surrounding community. We have not been able to do this without the great partnerships created along the way.
We would like to thank the following partners
Piqua VFW Post 4874 and auxiliary
Piqua American Legion Post 184 and auxiliary
Covington AmVets Post 66
Covington VFW Post
Troy AmVets and Sons of the AmVets Post 88
Miami County Foundation
Piqua Community Foundation
Operation Homefront
Miami Valley Veterans Museum
Miami County Agricultural Society
Miami Valley Centre Mall
Shelby County Veterans’ Services
Darke County Veterans’ Services
Montgomery County Veterans’ Services
Fields of Grace Worship Center Covington Ohio
Miami County Food Insecurities
American Family Insurance, Kirk Nichols
Conagra
Covelli Enterprises Panera Bread
Erwin Chrysler
Green Valley Veterinary Services
Jamieson and Yannucci Funeral Home
Max Living Chiropractics
Meijer Troy Ohio
Midwest Ohio Association of Realtors
Piqua Lumber
RedBerry Troy Ohio
Scott Family McDonalds
Sunset Meats
Ulbrichs
Quint Signs
Walmart Piqua and Troy Ohio
Many private donors
We are working hard to reach our veteran community in an effort to improve their quality of life, one veteran and caregiver at a time. We are always looking for ways to partner with others to grow a healthier community of veterans and caregivers. If anyone would be interested in volunteering, becoming a board member or donating, please
reach out to us at Operation Veteran and Caregiver Support Monday thru Friday 8-5 at 937-570-6460, by email at operationventure2019@gmail.com or by following us on Facebook. Thank you for your time, we are simply grateful for our community and looking forward to a bright new year continuing serve those who have honorably served.
