To the Editor:
We are a non-profit veterans’ organization, The Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 151, from Bayonne. In order to try to show some appreciation to our hospitalized veterans, we host a yearly night out for them. We try to bring some happiness to those who honorably served our country and were left with lasting wounds in the form of PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
PTSD usually occurs from the stress of combat and the horrors that they experienced. These mental wounds are very real and very difficult to overcome; we may not be able to see them, but the veterans must learn how to live with them and function normally. If we can give them even a little help and encouragement so they know they’re not forgotten, then we have done our job.
Each year we host a dinner and entertainment for the PTSD patients from Lyons VA Hospital. The veterans are treated to a home-cooked meal, entertainment in the form of a comic/ventriloquist, and some gifts to remember they are not forgotten.
We are reaching out to you to request any type of assistance you can offer in the form of financial aid, gifts for male or female veterans, food coupons, or something appropriate for a gift bag for each veteran.
We are hosting this dinner on Oct. 23 and expect 25 to 30 veterans. Any help you can offer will be sincerely appreciated by us and by the PTSD patients.
Feel free to contact me at home at (201) 858-0378. Thank you in advance for your generosity. We hope you can help us help them.
TINA MILLER
Dinner coordinator