Members of Post 200 in Grand Junction, Colo., presented more than $3,300 in items to the city's VA medical center through an Operation Comfort Warriors grant. (Photo by Lucas Carter)

Paving the way for alternative healing

Not all healing happens because of medicine or inside a hospital’s walls. That’s why The American Legion’s donation this week to the Grand Junction VA Medical Center in Colorado is so important.

Through Operation Comfort Warriors (OCW), the Legion donated more than $3,300 worth of items to the Department of Veterans Affairs facility in Western Colorado. Included in the items were four new trail bicycles to be used in the facility’s recreational therapy program for patients dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It’s very meaningful, because I think it opens up the ability for (veterans) to further integrate into things that will help their treatment, regardless of what that treatment is,” Grand Junction VAMC Director Marc Magill said. “I think it’s been proven the recreational therapy – whether something as simple as model building or whether it’s riding a mountain bike – that’s where some pretty outstanding outcomes can occur.

“Good health is not always achieved in the medical center. It can be achieved on a mountain. That’s what that type of donation means. It’s something that the veteran and/or their family may not have access to. It’s very meaningful.”

The donation also included six portable DVD players, 30 plastic modeling kits, clothing and hygiene items for the hospital patients in the Community Living Clinic, and specialty items for the women's health clinic.

Department of Colorado Legionnaires, including some from Post 200 in Grand Junction, helped facilitate the donation. Post 200 Commander Dallas Hanson and Adjutant Jim Park were on hand April 27 to make the donation.

‘It’s honestly amazing,” Hanson said of making the donation. “Going out with (OCW Coordinator) Bruce Drake and doing the whole purchase, being able to help a local business … knowing that we have the ability and capability to be able to provide like this to our VA and help our veterans here, it’s awesome.”

Magill said the donation shows the strength, and importance, of VA’s relationship with The American Legion. “I think it’s important because we have a common partnership with a common goal: to continuously improve services for veterans,” he said. “That partnership is so important.”