Last Friday morning during the storms, four veterans who are members of the Elks Lodge in Edmond delivered food items for our pantry. We will use these items to fill food sacks we give to veterans and their families. When you see any of the following members — John Carr, Jr, Les Cummings and Edmund — please tell them thank you.
Our veteran of the week is Mr. Robert Vogelgesang, who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. We recognized him with a new hat while introducing to the other veterans, surviving spouses and volunteers.
Thank you to = veterans who have donated cars, trucks and motorcycles to give to veterans or to be sold to raise funds to pay for our programs. These donations help us put more dollars into our programs.
Our biggest expense is the cost of medical diagnosis for veterans to obtain supporting evidence to send in with applications for benefits.
Each month, we spend between $20,000 to $30,000 to support the men and women who have served or continue to serve in our military.
That money comes from the men and women we have helped receive VA benefits.
Of the vehicles that were donated over the last two weeks, we will give one of them to a veteran who was part of the recovery team at the Oklahoma City bombing.
He was recently diagnosed with PTSD. He was a member of the U.S. Air Force assigned to Tinker as a heavy equipment operator when the call was made to report to the bombing site.
We are very proud of all of the men and women who are serving or have served in our country’s military. Many of them will never be the same after serving in combat or in operations that exposed them to the death and injuries of others.
A traumatic event might be something that occurred in an accident or the recovery of people who were injured in a tornado or other type of disaster.
One of the things we do every Tuesday and Thursday is encourage veterans to seek out mental health counseling from either the VA, Veterans Center or through private counselors.
We have encouraged thousands of veterans to take time to talk to mental health professionals.
We are available every Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the 1268 N. Interstate Drive, Exit 110, in Norman. We open the doors by 5:30 a.m., and we begin working as soon as volunteers have computers ready.
We stop taking clients as soon as we reach the quota for the day, which varies depending on the number of visitors and number of available volunteers, usually 8 a.m.
Contact us with any questions at 550-8806 or email dale@dalekgraham-veteransfoundation.org. Visit dalekgrahamveterans-foundation.org. Semper fi.
Dale K. Graham Veterans Foundation is not affiliated with any other organization. Dale K. Graham is a VA accredited claims agent.
