Episode 75 - The Veteran Last Patrol Program with John Davis
Welcome to Caregiver Release Podcast. I'm Diane Carbo, RN, and I'm very excited about today's topic. Today we are going to shine a light on the incredible work of Veterans Last Patrol. This organization is dedicated to providing companionship, comfort and dignity to veterans in hospice care.
Joining us today is John Davis, a veteran last patrol board member. John is a passionate advocate and a key figure in this mission. We'll explore how veterans last patrol bridges the gap between honor and compassion, ensuring our nation's heroes feel valued and supported during their final journey.
Veterans Last Patrol continues to honor and serve veterans in a profound and meaningful ways through very impactful programs. I read in your newsletter, John, about the fifth annual honor ride that brings communities together to visit care facilities nationwide, thanking veterans and residents and families for their service, car and bike clubs, as well as local organizations and businesses are also invited to join and sponsor this event.
Then I learned about your sixth annual operation, Holiday Salute, which ensures no veteran is forgotten during the holiday season, delivering heartfelt holiday cards to veterans on their last patrol. Last year, I read that nearly 60, 000 cards were shared nationwide. And then you also have, which I love the thought of this program, Adopt a Care Facility Program, which encourages individuals to identify and visit veterans in care facilities, offering companionship and gratitude to those who served our country.
These programs provide opportunities for people across the country to honor veterans and express their appreciation for their service. So welcome, John. I'm so glad you have joined us today. I want to for the invitation. I'm excited. I want you to let you know both my father, my 1st husband and my sons have served in the military and I work with many seniors and family caregivers all over the country.
So, when I learned of this project of yours, I wanted to share it with my listeners. Can you tell us about the founding of the Veterans Last Patrol? Yeah, sure. Absolutely. So Veterans Last Patrol was founded in 2018 by our founder, Colonel Claude Schmeid, U. S. Army, retired. And Colonel Schmeiden, we're going to call him Claude from now on out, served 31 years in the United States Army, was deployed to Iraq twice, and his last job in the military prior to his retirement was the Wounded Warrior Flight Program, which was in New Jersey when severely injured warriors from Afghanistan and Iraq were brought back to the country for medical reasons.
He would organize. His department organized the families that would meet them. So Claude's just one of the finest people you will ever run across. Claude had been doing this kind of service as an individual for a number of years, and when he retired. He decided, he called me up and asked if I would help him turn this into from a personal job to a national organization.
And of course, when bird colonel asks you to do something, you never say no. So, we started working on this program in, in 2019. And the first thing we did was we reached out, we were in the Greenville Spartanburg area of South Carolina. We reached out researched the area and we found 65 hospices.
In our local area, we went and met with several of them and told them what we wanted to do and and that's how we got started in that area. And what we wanted to do was, our primary mission was to provide companionship. to veterans that are in hospice status. And so when we brought this idea to, to the hospices every one of them said, absolutely, that's exactly what we need.
So that, that's our goal. That's our mission to provide friendship and companionship to veterans in hospice care. And of course that was in 2019, we got started and We got a good core group of volunteers in a local area initially, but then of course COVID hit and that slowed down the volunteer effort quite a bit.
Hospices were not allowing people to visit during COVID, so that kind of put a little bit of a break on our program. But it actually kind of turned out, like a lot of things, it actually turned out to be a almost, let's not say a good thing, COVID, but, but it turned out it made us think a little harder about how can we continue our mission.
And we came up with the idea of honor ceremonies for veterans. So an honor ceremony, we would gather several veterans. It doesn't have to be a lot, but it might be five, it might be 10, it might be 30. We would gather 30 veterans together. We'd stand out maybe, in the front yard of the hospice and the veteran that we were honoring would be in his room by the window.
And nothing special. We'd just do a little ceremony. Everyone was a little bit impromptu, but you know, we'd stand at attention. We'd have the national anthem played. We'd salute, we'd introduce ourselves. To the veteran a lot of times the veteran would have a phone, a cell phone in his room and we'd, we'd have our cell phone outside.
So that, that's how we got the, the noise not the noise, but the the verbal through. And so, so then honor ceremonies became an integral part of our mission. So we do that too. So but anyway, that's, that's it in a nutshell. We provide companionship. We do honor ceremonies. And we just do support, you know, a lot of times support,, you run across a veteran is maybe not even registered with the VA.
So we, we might figure out how to get that process started. You use the term last patrol to describe the mission. Can you explain what that means to your organization and to the veterans you serve? I know as, as a military mom, I I understand it, but a lot of our listeners may not. Cause can you elaborate on that for me?
Yeah. Veterans when, when they're serving, if they're in the army, they know what a recon patrol is. If they're in the Navy they know what a sea patrol is. If they're in the air force they know what, you know, combat air patrol is. And of course, the patrol is a team that's put together to do a mission, whether that's you know, to Sail around in the ship and protect, protect the Harbor or whatever.
It's patrol patrol is a team. So veteran last patrol, it's the same thing. It's a team. And then everybody on a patrol is watching the other guys or the other, other gals back, male, female, right? You're watching your fellow patrol persons back. And that's what we're doing here in the veterans last patrol.
So a veteran is on there. Their last patrol, they're in hospice care. They're going to transition but we have their back and they're not alone. And that that's where the word patrol comes from. Oh, I just love that. I love the program. I love the concept. So can you tell me how it has made a difference in the lives of the veterans and their families?
You know, none of us that are not in hospice care probably know how that feels emotionally until you actually are in hospice yourself. But but, you know, we can all imagine that, you know, when we're in hospice care, We know where we're headed and, it's got to be an emotional time and a self reflecting time and nobody would probably want to be alone, but let's be honest.
I know in my life, when Claude asked me to help him with veteran last patrol, I reflected back on people that I have known in my life that were in hospice status. And personally, I know that. It's difficult to visit with them. You know,, I had several friends, they would be in hospice.
Well, I'm going to go visit my friend Fred and then they would come and I would find an excuse not to visit Fred or, and because it's just not an easy thing for us to recognize our, you know, that we're not here forever. And so, that's what Blast Patrol is about is veterans to veterans Under the theory that a veteran should not have to go on his last patrol alone.
And the other thing is you know, I know everybody that's listening, you see veterans. and about at the store and at the restaurant and they've got their veteran hat on says army veteran, Navy veteran, and the effects are veterans can actually establish a connection veteran to veteran really, really easy or much more than just.
You know, regular guy in society. And even if you're a a Vietnam vet you can connect with a world war two vet if you're, even if you're army and their Navy, everybody has a lot of shared experiences on being on guard duty going through boot camp together, having us having a drill sergeant having a a great commander, you know, there's just a lot of connections that you can easily strike up a conversation over.
Veteran to veteran. So, so that, that's our concept. Veterans shouldn't be alone in hospice care and veterans certainly understand patrol and having someone else's back and able to establish a connection very quickly. I did hospice. I was a hospice nurse and I have taken care of Korean war vets and World War II vets.
And Vietnam vets. So I really can attest to the fact that just anybody in hospice, it's, it's very strange how people are afraid to face reality and face our own mortality. It's a reminder all the time. And I'm another person who believes no one should die alone. We should be there and to support them as they cross over whatever that means to to them and to the family.
So I am I love the concept and I've seen with my sons. I've seen the bonds that they've made while in the military and it's astonishing to me because, you know, now that they're out, they have. My son Casey, who was an army scout, is now a nurse anesthetist, and the guys that he was with may be farmers, they may be, I know he's got an alpaca farmer guy,, he's got so many people in a variety of different lifestyles that he's kept in contact with decades later after his service, and It's touching to me to see how they have that connection and people that aren't in the military don't understand that how, you know,, you always have someone six and you, you know, no man left behind and people that in that don't have that concept in their life.
Need to learn about it. That's my thoughts. But here's a question I want to ask one of the most important things and the success of your program is you have to recruit volunteers. So how are you doing that? And what are some of the biggest challenges in getting enough volunteers to meet the demand for this service?
Well, yeah, as I said Claude started this program in upstate South Carolina, Greenville Spartanburg. But our, our goal and our agenda was to make it, you know, national. And to do that, of course, we need volunteers. And you know, I, I remember a few months ago, I got a phone call from, from a veteran's son and he was in Nebraska somewhere.
I forget the name of the town, some town in Nebraska I'd never heard of and said, Hey you know, my dad's in hospice care. Can veteran last patrol send somebody? And,, you know, and the answer was no, I don't have anybody in that little town in Nebraska. So, but we, we didn't say no, we just didn't have anybody that was a volunteer in that small town in Nebraska, but that's what we need.
We need to be able to have. Somebody that's got a veteran family member in hospice care that reach out to us and we go, Oh, yeah, we, we have somebody there whether we have 20 people in San Diego or we have 100 veterans in the New York metropolitan area, you know, that's what we need because there are.
There's certainly enough veterans in hospice care at any given time. There's, you know, tens of thousands. So, so that's why we need volunteers. And your question was, how do we get volunteers? Well you know, nobody's getting paid in veteran last patrol you know, even from our CEO on down, nobody's being paid.
So we are all strictly volunteers. And how do we find volunteers through things like your podcast? We just reaching out. Putting the word out that we exist and, you know, and if this is something that's of interest to you, please call. we're constantly looking for free publicity. So we had an article, for example, in the epic times a few months ago, and I didn't realize how many people were subscribers to the newspaper epic times, but apparently quite a few because we received you know, dozens and dozens of phone calls from people expressing interest in becoming volunteers from that.
So we're on Facebook. We have a website veteranlastpatrol. org. We're on LinkedIn. We're in different social media things. Sometimes when we're going to do an, An honor ceremony we'll ask the family if they're okay with it, we'll invite the local television station to attend.
Sometimes they do, most of the times they don't, but you know, every once in a while, they'll send out a camera and and a person and cover one of our honor ceremonies. So that, so that's how we build publicity about what we're doing. So we used to use different things to gather volunteers. And I might say another word about volunteers.
So what we. Just spoke about earlier about how maybe in general it's difficult to visit someone in hospice, veteran or otherwise. But so we have a lot of people that express that they want to be a volunteer. But, you know, it, it takes a lot more volunteers expressing interest to generate an actual volunteer.
If you know what I mean, there, there are a few hoops you have to jump through to be a volunteer. So we work with hospices. And every hospice, there is a training program that every hospice puts all their volunteers, whether they're veterans or not through it's, it's not a huge. burden to do the training, but it's a little bit of a burden.
You know, you might have to look at some videos on, on their website that helps you train. There are a few rules about being a volunteer for a hospice to visit, you know, you're not a, you're not their doctor. So there's training about, you know, don't, don't get yourself into being the doctor or, or making Suggestions or, or disapprovals of a treatment that's underway, this is not what you're there for.
So there's a few little things you have to jump through some hoops. So we do lose potential volunteers along the way, but we have right now, we're in 32 states, I believe I last count I had, and we have several hundreds of folks that have expressed interest, and we probably have about a hundred active volunteers.
And another point about Veteran Last Patrol I want to make out is when you volunteer it's not a difficult thing time wise to be a veteran last patrol volunteer. there's no requirement that you fill out a report every time you visit a veteran from us. There's no requirement that you visit 10 times a month or five times, you know, it's, it's all up to the veteran and the, volunteer how they want.
Obviously, if you're going to visit someone in hospice care once a month, that may not be much, as much companionship as, as that person deserves. But you're not, this is also not going to be something you have to do every day, unless that's what you want to do. So we, we have volunteers across the country now that are doing, doing this mission.
And Yeah. So that's kind of the short story on your question, John. Can you clarify to me? Do volunteers need to be veterans themselves? that's a great question. The answer is no. So even though our concept is based on the theory or the truth that veterans can connect with veterans. Quite easily, much more easily than the general public.
A lot of our volunteers are like yourself. They are spouses of veterans or kids of veterans, and they know the military life. So, even though they may not have been a veteran themselves, they, you know, you can still strike up a conversation with a veteran that, Hey, I was stationed in Fort Bragg.
How about you? Or something like that. So so no, you don't have to be a veteran. Although I would say our ideal candidate is an actual military veteran, but no. Please volunteer if you're just kind of know the life. Through some way. I agreed with that because any visit could be so meaningful to a veteran or a person on their last patrol, as, as you say, I I've seen it many times.
They, Enjoy company and even if they're in pain and suffering, just knowing someone's there to maybe hold their hand or just talk or listen to them or read to them. It's just such a meaningful interaction and it's that last connection that human connection that really makes a difference.
It's very important for our people that are dying and I think hospice is a wonderful program and I learned from you the other day when we were speaking I worked for hospice and I find that doctors do refer to hospice soon enough. You know, patients can be on hospice first, you know, they wait to the last minute.
So when they by the time they're on hospice, they're only on hospice for a few weeks to a few days to a few weeks, and then they pass and you have not had that experience. So that surprised me. You've had it. Yeah. Yeah. And this is what I'm used to seeing in my early days in nursing, where a patient could be on hospice for as long as a year, six months to a year.
Yeah, in fact when Claude and I started working on this, I really didn't have a good understanding of hospice care and what it actually was. And as you said, as I started to learn that, you know, I thought hospice care was the best week of your life from a medical predictive basis. No, I've. A lot of the people that I've met with over the year in hospice care has been in hospice care for months and even as you said a year I have right now I have one army veteran that I visit with, World War II veteran in fact, and he's 99.
And I'd say I've been visiting with him for well over six months at this point he's 99 and he's, his plan is to make it to a hundred. So I, I bet you he makes it, you know, that's six months away. Yeah, god bless him. Now I want to know how can hospice organizations partner with veterans of last patrol to connect with their veteran patients with this meaningful services that you offer?
Well actually They just, like a potential volunteer, they just need to reach out to us one way or the other and via the website, or something. And, we do have the program where we sponsor a hospice. And again, it is our operating theory that when we first started this, we thought, well, you know, maybe somebody, you know, in church is a veteran and, you know, this, you could go visit them based on that referral.
And that's certainly true. That certainly works, but, we figured out that the best way to get this mission accomplished is to work directly with hospices. So, we go out and we try and find volunteers that are veterans, and then we pair them up with a hospice and generally speaking, We, we have a network of hospices that we know and work with now, but I don't know how many hospices there are in America, but I'm sure we're, we've only touched 1 percent of those.
Yes. So it would be great for us if we had a hospice in our network. And then if we had a phone call from a volunteer expressing interest in our program you know, we would say, Oh, yeah, that's great. You're in this zip code and we have a partner hospice in, in the same zip code. Let's get you guys connected.
So that, that would be. Yeah, so we'd like hospices to be in our network, and we like volunteers to be found, and then we like to connect those two. John, I'm a care manager. I've done it for decades, and when I heard about the story of the young family, or the family that called you in Nebraska in a small town, my first thought was, well, the family member needs To identify what hospice they are going to utilize, and that usually comes from the doctor's office or whatever, and then I'd have them, the family say, call the, the have call the hospice themselves and say, hey, I have this program that I want to be part of our, our hospice plan and it's Veterans Last Patrol.
And then I would ask, would you contact them? And then from there, I would go and tell the hospice organization, this is my mind or how my mind works. I'd be calling the hospice organization and say, Hey, Can you know, when you're looking for volunteers, we need new ones in the area or, or we're not familiar with this area.
Give us the names of the local veterans organizations that you work with. And like there's always the, the VFWs and so many other organizations like that where the veterans we have here in Myrtle beach, South Carolina, a veterans cafe. And they have a very active program where they have, you know, they, it's an actual cafe, but they also are training veterans to reenter the workforce and do a lot of other things.
So this is one thing I'm definitely going to bring to their attention because Lord knows, we have a hospital Here in the area an outpatient center of VA. They're growing developing another one. So the need is there. We just have to get the word out to the people.
And I think that the youth of America and People that really are looking for volunteering, which a lot of seniors want to do to keep themselves busy. I think this is a perfect program for them. Yeah, in fact, I would say that the average volunteer is a veteran who is retired because they have the, you know, time on their hand.
to do this. And again, just to stress the point, it's not a huge time commitment to be a volunteer for veteran last patrol. There is some commitment, but it's not, it's not something that's going to prevent you from going on vacation. In fact, you know, sometimes I go on a two or three week trip somewhere.
I'll just tell the local hospice, Hey, I'm out for two or three weeks. You know, if I'm assigned to one of their patients, you know, I'll let that patient know as well and their family. But you know, I had to go on vacation. So there you go. And that that's what volunteering is all about. It's being able to.
Give of your time when you can, and that's really important. I know with me,, I live with chronic pain. My years of nursing have just destroyed my body. I tell people I used to pick up men for a living because I did physical rehab nursing for decades. Decades. So, and yes, I did more than men, but it just sounds funnier.
So I say that, but, and I lifted big guys up for years. So I get the idea, you know, that I don't want to volunteer on, commit to something on a regular weekly basis or daily basis because I don't know if I'm going to have a bad day pain wise. I, I manage my pain very well, but there's just days where it's just like today here in Myrtle Beach, it's, it's cold and wet and damp and it's like, Yuck.
And I hurt more. I still get out and walk. I still do those things. But I like being able to, I can tell you right now how I am. And when I, when I meet somebody and I have that connection, I feel like I want to come back. I, if you make it and it's a good connection I want to return to them. I want to learn more.
And I, I want to learn more about them because that is the human condition The connection there is so important to everybody, even at the end of life even the biggest margins and Lord have mercy. I've had lots of curmudgeons in my life that I've cared for. You get to melt their hearts.
You just work, you worm your way in with your, your kindness and smiles and, they give into that and you, learn things about people that, they want to share with you and it's just a lovely thing. I really like it. You know, if someone's interested in being a veteran last patrol volunteer, I, maybe I could give a few examples of, of typical, typical veteran last patrol volunteer experiences.
So you know, first thing we are talking about veterans in hospice. So a little bit like Forrest Gump and you know, the box of chocolates, you don't know what you're going to get. So that's, you know, let's be honest Folks in a hospice can be in different states of health. Some will talk your ear off.
They're still, their mind is still there. Their voice is still there. Their body's just failing them, but they, they're, Just love to have somebody to talk to. So, you know,, those are always quite interesting. And you meet some very interesting veterans that way. You meet, I've met as far as patients in in this program, I've met people that were in Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, and get a first person account of that is, well, that's really something special.
And I've met met another Navy veteran whose ship did a around the world sailing. And he talked about all the different ports that they were at. And that was a very interesting story. But on there is the other side, and that is you might have someone in a hospice who cannot communicate.
And I've had those as well, and you're visiting with them and, and honestly, sometimes you might wonder do they know I'm here or not? So and that's where maybe sometimes this is a little challenging for, for us regular human beings. But I would say in that case yes, the veteran knew that I was there because after a while he couldn't communicate.
But after a while. It was suggested that he liked hymns. He grew up in a religious family. And I took my phone in with some music, some onward Christian soldiers music and played that. And the next thing I know, the gentleman is singing along. So, you know, that was a very special moment and that's what I did in the future visits with him as I would Just talk a little bit and then we'd play some music and like I said, he would for you know, however, our complicated brain works music was still there with this gentleman So that was very interesting and I might also add that A lot of these visits are, are also giving a family member a chance to take a break. So you know, I've not all hospice people are in a hospice facility, some are at home.
And you know, by visiting with their veteran, you give a chance for the wife or the granddaughter. I have one now whose granddaughter is taking care of the veteran. Gives them a chance to get out of the house and go do some shopping or just, you know, Go to Starbucks and have a coffee and decompress.
So, yeah, so that's that's what we did. John. I want to make you aware of a program that the Smithsonian Institute runs is called StoryCorps C O R P S and If you heard your stories, I don't know if you're aware of it, but you can make your family members aware of it. Or if you're the volunteers, they can record those stories and submit them to story core and story court.
Saves them for future generations. And in fact, I watch PBS on Saturdays and Sundays. That's my, my luxury. And they have these little commercials, but they're not really commercials. They're little animations of somebody telling a story. And it's from their StoryCorps program. So I just wanted to make you aware of that.
And then the other thing I wanted to make the listeners aware, hearing is the last to go. The last the last of our senses to go. So always talk to your person. And remember, they may not understand what you're saying, but if you say it with a positive tone, Upbeat or soft approach, they'll get the meaning.
And the last thing I want to do remind you all my listeners is music is the universal language. And I've seen people in deep comas or catatonic, in, With Alzheimer's and just like you said, I had a little old lady who was a gospel singer when she was young, had been catatonic for years, and I brought in on hospice, a a guitar player, and she brought in other music, gospel music, and That little lady who had not spoken a word in, in years started singing along to the music that she heard.
So I really encourage people to volunteers to, don't hesitate to do the investigation and learn where they into music. And if they were gospel, or maybe it's stars and stripes music or whatever. Use that as a tool as to, to make a connection with somebody. I think that's really important and you'll know even if they're non communicative, you'll see a light go on in their eyes often and that's just, that's, that's just the signal that you've made that connection.
It may not be long. It may be fleeting, but you had that you have to take that as success. Didn't realize hearing was the last to go. I'm being constantly told by my wife, I need hearing aids, but okay, there you go. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Hearing is the last sense to go and people need to remember that.
And even just going in and holding somebody's hand. Or touching their shoulder when you're talking to them is so important. And if you're not a touchy feely type person, get over it, make yourself get out of your comfort zone and do that. That's the nurse in me. Yeah. And that's, that's, and those are really excellent points.
And being that you know, Being on the veteran last patrol and visit, and even if you're a civilian visiting your friends that are not veterans, just visit people in hospice. No matter what, what your state, every hospice is looking for volunteers with veterans or otherwise. And they, they could use that help especially.
And in terms of what do I do when I visit with a veteran, you know, there's I found the music thing as you just said the music thing. The first time I learned it worked was with this gentleman who couldn't speak, but now I bring that up with every veteran I visit with., what kind of music did you like?
What kind of music do you like? And you know, you'll come to find out I've, this has been every time I've asked this question, I've gotten an answer and, and that person hasn't heard music. Quite a while, you know, they're sitting in a room and there's, there's a television on with CNN on and you know, that's, that's what they've got.
So we turned the TV off. I bring up YouTube on my phone and I can play any kind of music that Gentleman or lady wants to hear and next thing you know, we're all singing a Willie Nelson song. So, yes, so that's actually the actual visit is, is really not the challenge.
The challenge is just getting off the couch and going and doing this. So, yes, yes. There is a program for dementia that people use where they buy or refurbished little phones, or they put playlists in for the people according to their needs and their likes, and then they put the, Hook up the headphones to them and they can hear their music and people don't understand.
Long term memory is there and they may not remember what you did yesterday or even your name each time you come, but the music is the one connection that is universal in humans. And if you find the music that they like, it just makes all the difference in the world.
It works. It works, definitely. Yes, it does. Yes. So, so John, what are your long term goals for Veterans Last Patrol? Well, I our long term goal is to get volunteers all across the country so that, when there's a veteran in an auspice, there's somebody nearby that can be their you know, their patrol, their Sea Patrol mate or their recon patrol mate, their last patrol mate, that everybody, that every veteran in hospital care has somebody in our program that we'll visit with them.
So that's the goal. And like I said, it's a big country. We got, you know, we got 50 States plus Puerto Rico. We got veterans and every one of them. And I don't know how many, I have no idea how many volunteers we would need to meet that. that goal, but it's it's certainly tens of thousands. Yes. So that's that's the agenda.
And it's also important. It's very important in this program or in any kind of hospice support program. You know, you need to be nearby. Let's be honest. We're all human beings. If If I'm driving by a hospice every other day on my way to the grocery store or on my way to even to work, if you're a working person, if I'm driving right by the hospice, it's not that hard to pull in there, stick my head in there and see, you know, see if the, if the hospice person is awake and ready for a little conversation.
You know, But if the hospice person you're trying to support is an hour away, that's probably not going to happen all that much. So, we're looking to have someone everywhere. Well, one of the things every state has different kind of hospice programs. I know that some only do in home hospice. And when the family member needs a break or respite care, they put them in a nursing home to provide that care for, I think it's up to two weeks.
And then they have to come back home again. Then there's plant hospice programs that are hospice houses and there, I know, because in Pennsylvania, we had homes that were big, gigantic homes that people had an individual room in that home, their hospice houses. And then we, again, had hospice units, but the hospice units are not used or meant for long term hospice.
That's a problem and I think most of the ones that are in the hospice units. Cause the VNA of greater Philly had a hospice unit was meant for either respite care or for those that had no one providing care for them in any way. So, you know, when you say close to home, you're absolutely right. You want someone who's in your neighborhood that you can just walk over if you can.
But that again, it's, it's. contacting your local hospice companies to see what type of hospice programs they have and how you can help work with them because that's really important as well. Well, I've visited, have visited as part of Veteran Last Patrol all, all kinds of different, you know, in, in house, in a facility.
Here in, I'm in Oregon now. We have, like we do all over the country, Veterans homes, you know facilities with people that aren't necessarily in hospice. In fact, most 99 percent of them are not they're just correct They're just older veterans in a veteran's home and there may be We did one I had the veteran in hospice status in a veteran's home and we organized an honor ceremony we We had the word put out at the facility that we were going to do an honor ceremony, and we got a lot of attendees because they're all right there.
And that was, that was a bit eyeopening. I didn't think I was ever going to get out of the building. There were so many veterans. They just want somebody to talk to, you know, these are the non hospice guys you know, we're happy to have somebody visit. So so, you know, there's another need there as well.
Just for someone doesn't really want to do the hospice veteran visiting. thing. Yeah, just call up your local veterans home and volunteer there. They will, you know, they need all the, their residents need all the companionship we can give them as well. So absolutely, there's more to this than just hospice.
So John, how do individuals or organizations support your mission. Are there ways that people can get involved even if they're not able to volunteer directly? Absolutely. Like I said this, let's be honest, this program is not for everybody. I recognize we just all recognize that. But if you want to support it in one way, in another way, you know, the best thing you can do is the word of mouth thing.
You know, here we are doing a podcast and I talked about, we go for free publicity and, and the newspaper and so on, but word of mouth is still probably crazily enough, the most effective way to get the word out is, is if you're listening to this and. Your husband's a veteran say, Hey, I just heard this thing pass the word or your Sunday school class.
Tell your Sunday school class it's it's today is December 9th. So it's too late for this year. But you mentioned earlier on, we're doing, we do a program every year called holiday salute, where we have. Elementary schools, churches, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts ladies clubs. They prepare postcards, which say happy, you know, happy holidays, dear veteran, dear hero, it's a, it's a letter basically really love the ones that kids do where they'll draw little pictures and we collect we collect well this year, our goal is I think a hundred thousand.
We did 73, 000 last year. 100, 000 of these cards, holiday salute cards, and we collect them at our headquarters in South Carolina, and then we mail them out all over the country to hospices that we know of. And you know, and they give them to veterans and veterans homes as well, and they get, they pass them out.
We have our volunteers take them to veterans they may be visiting with, you know, take 10 cards and, you know, they're, they're coming from all over the country. So you know, an individual veteran in Nebraska gets 10 envelopes with Christmas cards in there from all over the country. It's operation holiday.
So even doing things like that is supporting our mission to provide companionship and appreciation and honor for, for these veterans. So that's a, you know, that's another volunteer effort. Yes. And that's important as the soldiers who were once on, on the battle line who need cards, and need that they do at the end too, because our veterans and our seniors are often neglected.
And it's just nice. They appreciate being acknowledged for their service. And that's missing in a lot. And every veteran. Probably has fond memories of their favorite, their favorite time and day of the week in their unit back in the day was when they had mail call and they got letters from home. And so this is sort of a version of the mail mail call.
Mail call that, which, you know, again, everybody loved mail call back when we're serving. I used to send Casey when he was in Korea these big packages every week where I'd make cookies and, you know, just trail mix and jerky and stuff. And he calls me one day because I did it faithfully every week and he called me one day and says, mom, you gotta stop doing this.
The guys, not everybody gets mail. And I said, well, just tell me who they are. And I'll make a package for them to, you know, you gotta spread the love. And, you know, we are very blessed to live in a country of abundance. And we have the most generous people in the world here and our military have allowed us to enjoy our freedoms to the level that we have today.
So I think, you know, you just got to support them and whether they they're in the military or they're a veteran, every vet I see, I, I always thank them for their service. I just think that's really important because. We are so busy in our world. We don't take time to acknowledge the good things that have happened to us in our lives or to show appreciation for things.
I believe we have to all have or should have an attitude of gratitude. And that's just that's me on my preaching, but that's the way I feel. And I've been on in at the bed of many at the deathbed of many people. And I think that the biggest thing that I can take is. That you feel like you've accomplished something if you just made them smile or made a difference in their day.
And even if they haven't responded, because sometimes they don't, you just have to believe that they appreciate. The acknowledgement of their service and what they've done, and that they weren't alone. And that's really important. I think, well, our veteran last patrol is like almost every other volunteer program.
And that I, can tell you the volunteer, you, you, you get a lot more. out of it than you put in. So yeah, I can think of just so many occasions where, you know, I felt like, hey, I actually did something good today kind of thing and help somebody else out or gave somebody a break or made somebody feel better.
So, and family caregivers absolutely need that break. I was just going to say, you said, how else can people support our program? And I said to you that, you know, nobody's being paid. This is all volunteerism. But, you know, the holiday salute, when you're mailing out a hundred thousand, Christmas cards.
You know, postage, postage is not free. In fact you know, it's quite expensive. So yeah, we take volunteer, we take donations. You can go to our website, veteranlandspatrol. org, and find a way to send us a few shekels. We'd appreciate that. Another expense that we have that we always could use some help with is when we have a World War II veteran and we do an honor ceremony, we try very hard to get information on that veteran's service.
What rank was he? What ship was he on? What awards might he have won? And we will put together a shadow box with different things. Metal, you know, w we have some people that they'll go out and procure, metals that this person may have one service ribbons that this person may have earned. What if they were a partner?
You know, Sergeant First Class, we'll get a Sergeant First Class rank insignia and we'll put together a little shadow box that they can hang on the wall, of their room and then after they've passed, there's that memento for the family. So, we do that and this is not a million dollar thing, but it's not free either.
So, so we'll, we'll take some donations if you just want to. Help support our program. But, but honestly, the most important thing that you could do for us out there in the listening public is just pass a word, pass a word that we exist. And and that's cause that's what we really need. We need volunteers.
So John last, I'm going to ask you if someone is interested in getting involved, how can we learn more or reach out to veterans last patrol? I will put all this information on our website, but You want to give them the website again?
Yeah. Our website is veteran last patrol. So that's a veteran with no S veteran last patrol. org. And so you can find us there. You can Google just, you know, Google or search in your search engine, veteran last patrol, and something will pop up at say. You may say South Carolina or something, but yeah, that'll get you to us.
We're also on Facebook. So you can do the same thing on your Facebook is search veteran last patrol. And I think there's one other organization that, but we're the one in headquartered in South Carolina. You'll find us there. We're on LinkedIn and Facebook, and I think we're on Twitter.
So we have about 20, 000 followers. or friends or whatever they call them on Facebook. So we're there too. But yeah, I would say there's multiple ways to reach out. And basically what happens is you'll send in your name and contact info and say, you're interested. And one of us will reach back to you and call you and we'll give you a little more information about the program.
And like I said, tell you answer your questions and then, you know, you can decide, Whether this is for you or not for you. It's again, not for everyone,, but it's a very rewarding thing if it's something that fits what you want to do. Oh, that's lovely. To my family caregivers out there, I want to tell you that you are the most important part of the family caregiving equation.
Without you, it all falls apart. So, please practice self care every day. Have an attitude of gratitude because you are worth it. Thanks, John. I'm so pleased that we did this and I'm asking everybody spread the word about the Veteran Last Patrol Program. Thank you, Diane. I enjoyed, enjoyed meeting you. I've enjoyed meeting you too, John.
Thank you.
