OCW donation: A 'nice touch of kindness'

OCW donation: A 'nice touch of kindness'

A recent American Legion Operation Comfort Warriors donation to the VA Sierra Nevada Healthcare System in Reno will benefit the facility’s therapeutic art program, community living center, homeless veterans program and more.

Members from the Department of Nevada and Post 1 in Reno delivered the $8,000 worth of items to the hospital, which included clothing, toiletries, DVD players, portable ping pong tables, dart boards, wheelchair gloves, art supplies, crossword puzzles, and plastic model airplanes and cars. The March 10 donation was in conjunction with a Legion System Worth Saving site visit to VA Sierra Nevada.

“Everybody was really excited about the opportunity to give something to the VA hospital that’s part of our town,” said Post 1 Commander Jack Edstrom. “You just don’t realize what the veterans don’t have and then to provide stuff that they need really does your heart good.”

The art supplies and adaptive sports equipment that was donated “will really help improve the quality of care that the veterans who are in our community living center, as well as our outpatient veterans who participate in those programs, receive,” said Stephanie Torian, a voluntary service coordinator at VA Sierra Nevada who accepted the donations on behalf of the hospital. “Being able to sustain the therapeutic art program means so much to the patients and to the hospital.”

Several of the clothing items donated were buttoned-up dress collar shirts, which Torian said will be given to homeless veterans in the area to wear when seeking a job. And “nice, comfortable pajamas” were also donated for women veterans in the hospital’s inpatient ward to wear instead of the hospital gown.

The OCW donation was “just a really nice touch of kindness to add to what we do here at the hospital by providing that extra care,” Torian said.

Several Post 1 members helped deliver the donations and organized them on tables at the VA hospital. And when hospital staff arrived with carts to transport the items away, “they were grinning ear to ear. They were very appreciative,” Edstrom said.

 

 


Operation Comfort Warriors

Operation Comfort Warriors

This program provides comfort items for wounded, injured or ill military personnel. All donations to this fund go directly towards the purchase of these comfort items.

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