John Kleindienst
John Kleindienst, National Voluntary Services Director

In my last newsletter I shared my excitement for what 2022 holds for our volunteers as I see a renewed energy across our chapters. While there’s certainly going to be challenges as we adapt to a new normal, I hope we can harness that energy to seek creative, new ways for our volunteers to serve.

COVID continues to alter even our best-laid plans, but our nation’s veterans continue to have unmet needs that we are in a position to address. We can’t let our mission—our promise—suffer.

It’s going to take some creative thinking and good ol’ fashioned hard work to overcome this challenge, but I know we’re up to it.

Here’s what I ask: Take some time at your next chapter meeting to brainstorm a list of 5-10 fresh ideas of ways you can serve and connect with veterans in your community. Effective examples we’ve seen in the past months are mobile food pantries, vaccine clinics and a sponsored deep sea fishing trip. Send us your list—no idea is too big or too small—to [email protected] with “Chapter Volunteer Ideas” in the subject line. Be sure to let us know which chapter you are from. We’ll collect and share some of those ideas in a future newsletter. If you have a story of a success that you’ve had, we’d love to hear about that, too. Your chapter could be featured in an upcoming magazine issue.

As you think outside the box, don’t neglect our traditional ways we serve. Our transportation network always needs volunteer drivers. The VA hospitals, nursing homes and clinics all need our volunteer support too. Even an hour a month can have an immeasurable impact on a veteran. Information about these opportunities is at volunteerforveterans.org.

This year also marks the first time we’ll award $110,000 in scholarship money to student volunteers. We’ve added more individual awards to the DAV Scholarships Program and the top award increased to $30,000. These increases are a testament to the top-tier quality of student volunteers that donate their time in DAV’s name. Be sure to inform and encourage students in your community about this opportunity!

While the deadline to apply for this year’s award was the end of February, we’re going to open up the submission portal for next year’s scholarship at the beginning of April. All the details are at davscholarships.org.

Dealing with COVID is likely something that is going to be a reality for a long time to come. But instead of allowing that to slow our efforts down, view it as an opportunity to pivot and increase the ways we reach and help veterans and our families. We owe it to them to keep our promise.