Two days before Thanksgiving last year, St. Clair, Michigan, Bluewater Chapter 284 Chaplain David Hoffman presented a $2,000 check on behalf of the chapter to Dr. Matthew J Bruzek, DDS, a U.S. Navy veteran, and his wife Laura Wilhelm-Bruzek. The couple operates the nonprofit Veteran Smiles Foundation, which for the last four years has been providing free dental care to unemployed and other deserving veterans.

The Rochester, New York, Chapter 20 Color Guard presented the colors at the opening ceremonies of the nonprofit Rochester Veterans Outreach Center’s 20th annual Stars and Stripes Gala at the city’s Riverside Convention Center on November 1 last year, and at the 2025 Veterans Day event November 8 at Highland Park in Rochester. Color Guard members Larry Strassner, Mick Cole, Tom Roesler, Lynn Gursslyn, Stan Patykiewick, Dick Lewandowski, Tom Puff, Lynn Gursslin, Ed Pisconski, Rick Perry, George Cooper, and Charlie Klauck did the honors at the events.

Dayton, Ohio, Chapter 97 member Vincent Dec, a VVA VA Hospital Representative at the Dayton VA Medical Center, put together a Thanksgiving dinner for 60 veterans going through drug rehabilitation last November. “I wanted to do something special to show our love for them by having a good dinner,” said Dec, a longtime VVA Voluntary Services volunteer. “I had thirteen volunteers helping me with the dinner. [Chapter] Chaplain Ken Boyd said grace before dinner was served. All the veterans received a challenge coin, and we thanked them all for their service.”

Kyle Larsen/U.S. Army photos

Members of Salem, Oregon, Chapter 271 delivered more than 250 Thanksgiving meals—purchased with discounts from WinCo Foods, Costco, MegaFood, and Franz Bakery Outlet—to local veterans and their families to kick off the chapter’s annual holiday food distribution event. About 90 were delivered to homeless shelters and National Guard centers. Chapter members took the remaining meals directly to veterans’ doorsteps. For some of those veterans, “we’re one of the few people to come to visit, so [we] give a little of our time for them. [That] means a lot to them and to us also,” said chapter member Kirk Macdonald. The chapter delivered about 250 additional meals to deserving veterans’ families at Christmastime.

The color guard of Mississippi Valley Chapter 669 presented the colors at a Veterans Day assembly in November at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Milan, Illinois, during which 60 local veterans were honored.

Stuart Sax, a member of Collin County Chapter 1122 in McKinley, Texas, accompanied by his wife, Lauren, recently spoke about his Vietnam War and post-war experiences to a local high school senior English class. The students had just read Tim O’Brien’s classic Vietnam War novel, The Things They Carried. “I am unbelievably touched that [Sax] and his wife would go this far above and beyond just to be able to relate to our students,” said Hailey Contine, the Prosper High School teacher who reached out to the chapter asking for a Vietnam veteran to speak to her class about his war and post-war experiences.

Photo courtesy Brian Carn

Members of Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell Chapter 266 had an active fall In Service to America. Al Makutis, Len Johnson, and Doc Speight organized the chapter’s annual Halloween gathering, handing out candy to local children at the chapter’s headquarters. The chapter donated $500 to the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office’s annual Toy and Coat Drive for underprivileged children, and contributed $500 to the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Food Pantry at the local VA Medical Center. Chapter members and friends also sponsored 144 wreaths for the Wreaths Across America holiday wreath-laying at Washington Crossing National Cemetery in nearby Newtown, Pa.

Members of Alpena, Michigan, Chapter 583 held another successful Operation Holidays food and toy drive last year, distributing food boxes to deserving families for Thanksgiving, and wrapping and delivering hundreds of toys for Christmas. Operation Holidays served some 2,800 children in Alpena, Alcona, Montmorency, and Presque Isle counties.

Silver Spring, Maryland, Chapter 641, in an effort led by chapter member Ron Fink, purchased more than $500 worth of boxed meals that the chapter donated to the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center in December, and to a local homeless veteran. The chapter also honored member Charlie Shyab, who died in July, by donating $1,000 to his alma mater, Washington Adventist University (formerly Columbia Union College) in Takoma Park, Maryland. The donation, in Shyab’s memory, will fund new landscaping and maintenance around the college’s Veterans Memorial Bench. Shyab, who served as Conscientious Objector Medic with the Army’s 4th Infantry Division in the Vietnam War, suggested the idea for the bench, which the chapter helped fund, and which was dedicated in 2019.

Photo courtesy Roger McGill

Northeast South Dakota Chapter 1054, working with a local DAV chapter, began its Groceries for Veterans program in March last year to provide food for veterans and their families in need in their community. In 2025, the program distributed hundreds of boxes of food valued at about $50 each in Milbank, S.D. It will continue in 2026 in Milbank and five other towns in the Northeast section of the state. The program “identified a need that we didn’t know was there,” said Bob Fink, the Groceries for Veterans coordinator. “Because of the generosity of local business, individual donors, and local veterans groups, we have raised approximately $60,000 that has all gone toward the program.”

Photo courtesy Deb Groehler

Northern Virginia Dean K. Phillips Memorial Chapter 227 announced in December that its recently founded affiliate 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Northern Virginia Vietnam Veterans Foundation, received a $25,000 grant from the Pentagon Federal Credit Foundation (PenFed) for Military Heroes. That organization supports nonprofits that work with veterans and active-duty military. “This partnership with the PenFed Foundation underscores our longstanding commitment to leave no veteran behind,” said Chapter 227 President Jay Kalner. “Thanks to PenFed’s generosity, we can help more veterans keep their homes, pay essential bills, and get back on their feet,” Don Drunsic, the Northern Virginia Vietnam Veterans Foundation’s president, added. “By paying businesses directly on behalf of veterans, we ensure accountability, speed, and real results.” The foundation’s website is https://www.nvvvf.org.

Photo courtesy Lonnie Pizza

Rochester, New York, Chapter 20’s affiliated organization, Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, Inc., has provided donations to fourteen veterans assistance organizations in Monroe, Ontario, and Wayne counties since it was founded in 2023. The chapter provided the 501(c)(3) a nonprofit with an initial $250,000 grant. The foundation supports local nonprofits that help all U.S. military veterans, their spouses, and families. The Legacy Foundation’s website is https://www.vvlfoundation.org.

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