Volunteers can make a difference to veterans

In fact, some volunteers even offer to fill that need for a connection during the most pivotal moments. The program No Veteran Dies Alone, for example, sends volunteers to be with patients

in their final days if they don’t have friends or relatives who can be present. Among the  other  more specialized programs that welcome volunteers at VA facilities are recreation therapy

programs. At the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center, Griffin says, volunteers have been involved in recreation therapy programs where they take vets rock climbing, kayaking, canoeing  and  

biking. Such programs can be particularly helpful to wounded vets, including amputees, she said. For example, amputees who don’t have legs can hand-cycle with their arms. In one case, she

said, volunteers helped teach a Vietnam-era vet who couldn’t use one arm and one leg how to do archery using his teeth. Other volunteers with expertise in diving, she says, have taken

younger vets on trips to the beach in California or a lake in Utah to teach them how to dive.  “A lot of people with PTSD find it [diving] relaxing,’’ she says. “What I like about the VA

Voluntary Service is that it takes whatever your abilities are and  helps  you use your abilities to help other people’s abilities.’’ The same philosophy applies at the Maryland VA, Edwards

says. If a volunteer mentions that she plays guitar, she’ll probably be directed to work with a music therapy group, he says. Or an artist can do art therapy for inpatients or outpatients.

Volunteers also can provide relief for caregivers. “Since we serve an aging population, we serve vets receiving care through home-based primary care programs. We recruit volunteers to give

caregivers a break — for lunch, shopping, a movie.” This can be very rewarding, he says, for both the veteran and the volunteer. Most volunteering roles require no special expertise. Charles

Althoff, 77, drives more than 20 miles every Tuesday to the Baltimore VA Medical Center, where he spends five or six hours transporting patients within the hospital via wheelchair or

stretcher between their rooms and wherever they need to go for radiology exams, physical therapy or other appointments. Althoff says patients often ask where he is taking them, and if they

seem nervous he tries to calm them. The best part, he says, is the camaraderie and friendship he experiences working with veterans and other volunteers. “It gives me a feeling of being

needed,’’ he says. “I get thank-yous from patients, staff  and  doctors. That’s all I need.’’ If you are interested in volunteering with the VAVS, you can contact them online at 

www.volunteer.va.gov. Click on “Volunteer or Donate Now” in the drop-down menu, and that will take you to a state and facility where you can volunteer. You provide contact information,

indicate any specific interests and your availability, and someone from the facility gets in touch with you. Another way to find volunteer opportunities is to call the local VA Medical

Center and ask for the voluntary service office. If you don’t know where your local facility is, you can call 202-461-7300 and the VA will assist you. Veteran E.J. Walton volunteers at a

food drive at the Denver VA Medical Center. RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS You can also find volunteer opportunities by contacting nonprofit groups that

help veterans. About half of the volunteers who work at VA facilities are directed there by veterans service organizations and other community and faith-based groups that collaborate with

the VAVS, the VA says. In addition to helping at VA facilities, these organizations often organize their own activities and events to help veterans, and they welcome volunteers. The Disabled

American Veterans (DAV) organization, for example, launched an online tool in February 2018 that allows volunteers to enter their zip code and see what sort of tasks nearby vets need help

with, such as mowing grass, grocery shopping, cleaning gutters and even changing light bulbs.