Celebrating 5 Years Of Service In Supporting Our Wounded Veterans

It all started 5 years ago when our two co-founders, Christopher McDonald and John Yori realized that there can be no better way in which to honor the memory of our fallen heroes than to support our ill, injured and wounded service members and veterans whom God left in our care.

The core mission of USASOA has been and remains to provide the essentials of life: food, shelter, heat, utilities, toiletries and more to our most vulnerable and at-risk veterans who lack the resources necessary to live a healthy, safe and dignified life –a life that they earned and deserve.

Since then, USASOA has grown to include focus-driven programs and services to directly respond to the major issues and challenges that face our military and veteran communities. Through our direct engagement policy, USASOA leadership and volunteers have supported hundreds of service members, veterans, their families and caregivers over the past 5 years.

The ongoing USASOA programs and services strive to reflect the priorities and needs of our veteran and military communities:
 
Wounded Defenders of Freedom Fund: provides the essentials of life such as food, heat, utilities, transportation, and more to our most vulnerable veterans and their families who struggle from time to time.

Boots on the Ground: our grassroots campaign to raise awareness and collect need items and resources from American public for those veterans and service members in need.

OPERATION Reboot: Operation: REBOOT is our peer to peer support group for all military and veterans of every age and period of service. The core objective of USASOA OP-REBOOT is to bring together and facilitate support and encouragement among service members and veterans who share common yet varied experiences while utilizing life-affirming, therapeutic and recreational activities.

USASOA Ambassador’s League: conducts regularly scheduled goodwill visits to our military hospitals to meet our ill, injured and wounded who continue down the long road to recovery. In addition to the care and support that the USASOA Ambassadors bring to our recovering wounded, they also bring with them care packages consisting of healthy sacks, gift cards, books, toiletries and more. Many of the items that make up the care packages come from the USASOA Boots On The Ground collection drive. 

BBQ For Our Heroes: Since 2013, USASOA has been providing monthly BBQ’s beginning in May and wrapping up in October for our ill, injured and wounded service members recovering at Walter Reed Military Hospital. Held on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, this morale-boosting program raises their spirits while proving them with an outstanding, traditional outdoor BBQ event. Lots of food, music, snack and care packages.

Storm The Streets: As a veteran service organization dedicated to ensuring that all veterans are treated as our greatest national treasures, our homeless outreach program, Storm the Streets, directly engages veterans living on the streets. Our volunteers bring them a warm meal, blankets, and the offer of living a healthy, safe, and dignified life - one that they truly deserve.
   
USASOA Advocacy Program:  We support a meaningful and effective legislation and policy agenda that directly impacts the quality of life for our military and veteran communities. USASOA seeks to organize and work within various, nonpartisan coalitions consisting of government agencies, and other veteran service organizations and groups to better the lives of the over 20 million American veterans in this great nation.

Thanks to generous support from our donors, additional funding and resources are enabling us to expand the scope of our capabilities and to reach more veterans in need. With the support of larger corporations and local businesses, we are training and enlarging our committed volunteer force to build a stronger, more resilient nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that all service members and veterans are treated as our greatest national worthy of our time, energy and national treasure.

Today, we are endeavoring to raise $5,000 in commemoration of the 5 years we have existed as a charity organization. Please help us to continue our mission well into the future by clicking the Donate Now button below and please take a moment to consider volunteering with USASOA - you can make all of the difference.

We want to also take this opportunity to thank our Advisory Board members and especially our volunteers whom without their committed dedication, energy and active participation in our mission, USASOA would not be celebrating this 5th-year anniversary date.