User:Ms4862/Armed Forces Foundation

Background Information
The Armed Forces Foundation is a Washington DC. based non-profit organization which started ooperating in 2001 with the mission of supporting members of the United States Armed Forces from all branches of service, both active duty and retired. With such a broad range of goals, the Foundation has expanded tremendously, and now has annual donations of over $1,000,000. Through it's efforts, the Foundation currently has 12 programs which raise both funds and awareness for issues facing service members and their families.

Mission Statement
"The Armed Forces Foundation is dedicated to providing comfort and solace to members of the U.S. military community through financial support, career counceling, housing assistance and recreational therapy programs."

Programs
The Michael Stevens Memorial Family Assistance Program

The Michael Steven Memorial Family Assistance Program is the largest program administered by the AFF. By providing direct financial assistance to the family members of active duty and retired service men and women, the Foundation is able to make a valued impact on the lived of those who serve our Country.

In the past, the Foundation has helped families cover such expenses as:

• Airline tickets to visit loved ones recuperating in a hospital

• Utility bills

• Rent or mortgage payments (for civilian housing)

• Car payments ( for families whom it is their only source of transportation)

• Childcare during illness, surgery, or recovery

• Car insurance or registration payments

Assistance under this program encompasses a wide spectrum of support services which the Foundation has the capacity to help with. Whether it is a few hundred dollars to provide a family with a commissary voucher, to over a hundred thousand dollars to help a family purchase or make renovations to a house to help accommodate an injured loved one. Examples of this program in action would be the covering of rent or car payments to help keep service men and women from falling behind in their bills, paying tax bills, counseling fees, school fees for widows, and retrofitting vehicles to help people cope with disabilities. There is no template case, as each one is unique, but the Foundation never strays from its mission to help, even in the smallest ways, those who serve in the United States Armed Forces.

Michael Stevens Memorial Career Counceling Program

The return from military to civilian life is challenging for many servicemen and women. The goal of the Michael Stevens Memorial Career Counseling Program is to provide resources to these men and women of the Armed Forces as they make this transition so they and their families can have a happy life.

•Reintegration Assistance This reintegration back into society and the support of that end from the AFF provides a counselor to provide them with very pertinent information to help guide them through this transition.

•AFF Information Services The information age can be confusing for everyone, and sometimes, stressful. The AFF is committed to making this process, especially for Veterans, less stressful and complicated. In dealing with VA benefits, medical review boards, or any other service related benefits, the AFF staff has the knowledge to guide our Veterans through this complicated process.

•Mentoring Wounded WarriorsThe AFF Michael Stevens Memorial Career Counseling Program provides career counseling and job placement for transitioning servicemen and women. The process starts by addressing immediate hospital or medical needs, and ends in the successful placement of a Veteran into civilian employment.

Injured Support Services Program

The Injured Support Services Program was established to show our utmost gratitude to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Whether they have given their lives or sustained serious injury in combat, the AFF is there to support and show our thanks.

Troop & Hospital Staff Appreciation Dinners When someone we love is injured and recovering at the hospital, simple gestures and warm wishes for wellness are often the best medicine they can get. To show our thanks, the AFF organizes appreciation dinners for injured troops and the staff of the:

• Walter Reed Army Hospital

• National Naval Medical Center

• H.H McGuire Veterans Affairs Hospital These dinners feed hungry patients and hospital staff and are catered from local business who feels it is their duty, honor and privilege to support our Troops.

Lodging Assistance  The United States covers some 3.5 million square miles, and our military is made up of servicemen and women from all corners the Country. When a family member is injured and recovering they want their family by their side. The AFF is committed to having them there to comfort troops in their time of need. The AFF has provided over $100,000 for hotel and lodging costs to help families be with their loved ones at the following places:

• Navy Lodge at the National Naval Medical Center

• Malgone House at the Walter Reed Army Hospital

Bereavement Program

The main goal of the AFF Bereavement Program is to augment the cost of funeral and travel arrangements for families of deceased servicemen and women during their time of mourning. In addition to covering these costs, the AFF has helped families cope with their loss by:

• Providing grief counseling services

• Providing investment and estate planning services

• Yellow ribbon scholarship fund for children of deceased servicemen and women

In 2007 the parents of Corporal Jason Dunham were to receive the Medal of Honor for their son’s valor from President George W. Bush at a White House ceremony. To show our appreciation the AFF paid $5,000 to the family and friends of Corporal Dunham who traveled from Scio, NY to Washington, DC for this presentation.

Armed Forces Foundation | Housing Assistance Program

For many servicemen and women returning to their families, friends and communities, this homecoming marks a bittersweet new chapter in their lives and in the lives of their families. All too often these brave men and women are faced with challenged from injuries they sustain while in combat. These physical challenges range from amputation, paralysis, to blindness or deafness, and these injuries often hamper the serviceman or woman’s ability to live comfortably in their own home. The goal of the Armed Forces Foundation | Housing Assistance Program is to make their house feel more like a home.

The Armed Forces Foundation | Housing Assistance Program helps in these ways:

Retrofit bathrooms to help servicepersons with injuries limiting their mobility be more independent

• Widening doorways or lowering countertops for easier access for those in wheelchairs

• Building ramps so servicepersons can be more independent moving around the house

• Making necessary repairs to a house a family cannot afford or have the ability to perform on their own

In the past, the full spectrum of assistance provided by the Armed Forces Foundation has been to things as little as installing handlebars in a shower, to purchasing an entire house for a wounded serviceperson and their family.

Classic Outdoor Sports Program

The Armed Forces Foundation Classic Outdoor Sports Program fills a vital need of injured servicemen and women and their families, and that need is some much needed R&R. Through the Classic Outdoor Sports Program, the Armed Forces Foundation along with a number of other fervent supporters of our troops plan hunting and fishing trips for our injured warriors and their families. This program serves as a help to their self esteem, as well as helping to bolster their confidence and reintegration back into civilian life.

Judge Julie Mogenis: Huntin’ with the Judge

Judge Julie Mogenis, Director of the Classic Outdoor Sports Program and host of the internationally broadcast television series Huntin’ with the Judge, features injured servicemen and women in many of her weekly televised shows. Broadcast 7 days a week on 3 different networks, Huntin’ with the Judge has been extremely successful in helping raise support for our injured servicemen and women.

The Classic Outdoor Sports Program has received wide praise from the press for its efforts in providing our injured troops and their families with a much needed good time. The program has received recognition from Congressional leaders, ESPN, ESPN2, Outdoor Channel, The Sportsman Channel, Pentagon Channel, and Fox News.

Hilary Duff Charity Concert Series

Since 2004, Singer and Actress Hilary Duff has a significant supporter of the military community. Working in tandem with the AFF, she has provided hundreds of front row tickets and back stage passes to her tours to military servicemen and women and their families- really showing them the VIP treatment. In 2006, Hilary treated 9,000 service families to a free concert in Fort Bragg North Carolina, and her generosity has also shown in cases like her $500 donation to allow one daughter of a seriously injured service member the chance to attend her prom. Even with her busy schedule Hilary has made personal visits to the hospital to visit service members there, and also to make phone calls to share her words for a speedy recovery.

Operation Caring Classroom

The Armed Forces Foundation began Operation Caring Classroom, a program which was recognized in 2008 by the then Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, is a way to honor the bravery of the young children of service members who are separated from their loved ones by active duty combat. Operation Caring Classroom (OCC) touches the lives of children in 2 schools in all 50 states across the Country, awarding one civilian school per state the distinction of being an OCC school. • 16,000 children participate each year during the week of Veteran’s Day, and writing letters, drawing patriotic pictures, and creating strength chains

• Children are taught about life in military families, and also receive history lessons

• Children are taught to show compassion for their peers whom are currently in homes with parental deployment, frequent relocation, and death of a loved one. • This program provides an opportunity for children to say thank you to their military for their service to their Country.

The 2008 OCC program included the President of the University of Miami, Former Secretary for Health and Human Services Donna Shalala on a visit to North Beach Elementary School in Miami, Florida. The two helped students write letters and build a strength chain.

Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) Programs

In keeping with the AFF mission to support military families in their time of greatest need, the Foundation continually organizes MWR events all around the Country, allowing service members and their families a chance to escape the stresses of life, even if only for an afternoon, or an entire weekend. In 2008, the Armed Forces Foundation sponsored over $1,000,000 in MWR events which include:

• Welcome home ceremonies

• Golf outings

• Concerts

• Family outings

• Christmas parties

• Marathons

In 2008, Las Vegas mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam rolled out the red carpet in a series of VIP trips for 100 wounded service members at their Venetian Hotel-Resort and Casino. The trips were complete with private jet flights from Washington to Las Vegas, 5 star executive suite accommodations, private dinners, all access passes to shows… all expenses paid.

Purple Heart Ride

The Armed Forces Foundation has partnered with the Maryland Blue Knights, Chapter IX Motorcycle Club with the goal of coupling an enthusiastic group of avid motorcycle riders who are just as committed to their hobby as they are to supporting our Service Members. Past rides have included groups of nearly 200 riders, and drawn their attention to stories of pain and perseverance facing our wounded troops. This project has produced several thousand dollars in financial assistance for the AFF and our troops.

Soldier’s Home Investment Project (SHIP)

The Armed Forces Foundation has partnered with the Soldier’s Home Investment Project (SHIP) committee to enact a plan to renovate the Grant Building on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

The SHIP committee and the Armed Forces Foundation are committed to renovating the Grant Building and returning it to use by the residents of the Armed Forces Retirement Home for recreational, residential, and rehabilitation use. To that end, the SHIP committee and the AFF have committed to raise funds and awareness for the project.

Grant Building

Located in the Northern most corner of the Armed Forces Retirement Home, the Grant Building is a handsome marble structure, and will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2012.

The Grant Building is a large, rectangular shaped building with a central court from the second to through fourth floors. Plans for its construction were debated as early as the 19th Century, but it was not until 1906 that construction actually began. Its construction lasted 6 years. Baltimore based Architects, Baldwin and Pennington designed the structure, not only as a residence hall but also a mess hall

Celebrity Supporters
Singer and Actress Hilary Duff

Comedian Ron White

Comedian Dave Attell

UFC President Dana White

Judge Julie Mogenis