Some of our members wanted a few examples of where the donated money goes. They wanted to be able to tell friends, family, and co-worker why the MPG needs their donations. Here are a few of the examples from last year alone........ A Patriot needed help! We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to deliver a $3000.00 check from our donated funds to help out a Veteran who is not only a great Patriot, but a great friend to all of us and our Troops. Jack Allen Jr (6 carbs) has been handed more than his share of financial setbacks. These include his lovely wife Pam becoming paralyzed from the chest down, his son and caretaker of Pam had a massive heart attack in December 2012 and now requires a heart transplant, and all this while they are caring for Jacks elderly Mother in their home. The bills involved with these burdens are incredible. Jack struggled as long as he could and facing the reality of the situation has started to request assistance from several sources. The Michigan Patriot Guard Inc. Board of Directors were extremely honored to be able to represent the hundreds of MPG members here in the State of Michigan that work so hard all year to raise the funds to make these donations possible. Thank you members for all your support, and thank you Jack for your service to this great Nation and for our freedoms we enjoy every day. The DJ Jacobetti Home for Veterans. One of our favorite places to visit when we are in the U.P. is the Jacobetti Home for Veterans. We have made this a stop on our 2012 Heroes Ride and presented a check for the Veterans. This year we asked them if they needed anything special. Yes was the answer. You can only imagine some of the things they might need to help our Veterans out. But believe it or not, they needed pads and seats for the wheelchairs of the Veterans. It seems there is a way to get money to replace the entire wheelchair if it is totally broken, but not to repair them. They needed money to replace their badly worn out arm rests and seats. The thought of these Heroes sitting all day long on worn our cushions and bare arm rests was too much. We allocated $5000.00 so they could get our Heroes comfortable again. Thanks Nancy and Ann for all your help on this. A Veteran with PTSD from Montrose Michigan needed help. This combat veteran was suffering from the effects of his combat tour. He was unemployed and getting 30% disability from the VA. He is appealing to get a higher rate due to his medical issue. He has been diagnosed with PTSD but is not receiving comp from it. He also has Herniated Discs in his back along with degenerated disc disease. He signed up in Genesee County for assistance through the state for food stamps and whatever else he was entitled to. He sold off items and possessions to help out as much as possible but was behind on his truck payment and his house rent and was out of things to sell to keep from losing them. The MPG BOD voted to help this Hero out with a check for $750.00 for his truck and another $750.00 for his Rent. An Emergency request to help a soldier be by his wife side. We had a new Donation Request through JimyJ, our Chairman of the Donation Committee for a SSGT from Michigan stationed in Georgia. SSgt Christopher and Cpl. Kimmie were in need of assistance. The Patriot Guard had participated in 2 funerals for Chriss family, his brother Thomas passed away in 2011 and Brother Daniel passed in 2010, they died almost a year apart. Chriss wife Kimmie has been battling an aggressive cancer called Retroperitoneal Synovial Spindal Cell Sarcoma. She was diagnosed with retroperitoneal Spindal cell sarcoma in Nov.2011. She had two rounds of chemo chemo...surgery in Feb.2012 and now radiation. It was in remission and she was in process of being discharged medically from the Army. She was transferred to the WTU (Warrior Transition Unit) until her discharge. She still had ongoing tests to insure that the cancer was still in the state of Remission. Her last test showed that it had started to grow again. The Army was sending her to MDA Cancer Center (MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas. They specialize on her type of cancer. While the Army would pay for her travel, Chris would have to pay his own way. Their children would be staying with his parents in Michigan while they both went to Texas for her treatment. Chris could get a flight on the same plane as Kimmie so they can travel together but they were in need of some financial assistance. Kimmie was leaving on Feb. 7th enroute to MD Anderson. The Family Assistance Fund had no funding available and they were too proud to ask for assistance but his father contacted us at MPG. Chris needed money for the last minute flight and accommodations and transportation for the week-10 days he will be with her in Texas. As with all requests, this was discussed among the Donation Committees team of 8 members that accepted the request and brought it before the Board of Directors for consideration. I am happy to announce that the Allocations Committee and BOD passed the request and a check for $2000.00 was overnighted and he was able to join his wife in her fight to save her life! Once again the funds collected by the MPG were used to help out Heroes when no one else could! MPG Needed to keep a family together! We were alerted one evening around 6pm by an American Legion rep at the Ann Arbor VA about a Veteran, his wife that is on oxygen, and their young son that were in need of our help. Due to the death of the Veterans Mother, they now had a house that was behind in the utilities and the Veteran was unemployed. The electric was shut off in June. This family was running a refrigerator, one light, and the oxygen off of a generator since then. We were contacted because per social services protocol, the son was going to be removed from their home because they had no heat and it was going below 30 degrees at night. With some fast dedicated work from the MPG Allocation Committee, and then the MPG Board of Directors, the request was approved, the overdue electric bill was paid (plus enough for a couple months extra) for $3000.00 and the very next day the electric was restored and this Heros family was keep warm and together!!! THIS is the reason there is a Michigan Patriot Guard. THIS is what we do. WE HELP MICHIGAN HEROES! A Veteran needed home repairs before winter. SSgt. H is from Beaverton Mi. She was an Honor Guard Team Leader for the Michigan National Guard. SSgt H. was a full-time guardsman as one of the Honor Guard Liaisons for the State of Michigan. She has personally led over 1000 Funeral details in her 25 years in the Army. On top of her duties she also was part of the 1460th Transportation Unit at the Midland Armory in Midland Mi. She deployed to Iraq in 2003 with the 1460th, during her deployment she lost a team member of her squad in April of 2003 during a convoy in the march to Baghdad and was at his side when he passed away in the battlefield. She was scheduled to deploy with the 1460th this November. She participated in their NTC (National Training Center at Fort Irwin in California) training earlier this summer. When she returned during a routine physical she was found to have some issues in her physical. She later went to the VA for exams and was medically retired out of the Army because of those issues. She has 3 kids and will not receive her Retirement for her service until she is 60. She is 100% service connected disabled. With her back pay she received she decided to make repairs on her home. The person she used to make the repairs left without finishing the job. She had no tools or the physical ability to do the work that was needed. There was too much to do and the weather wasnt getting any better. She needed professional help to do a good job and quickly before the weather ruined the unprotected materials already installed on her house. The MPG was able to help this Hero with a check for $4300.00 to pay for a local contractor to finish the house and keep it from being ruined. Veteran needed to be with her family. We were contacted by John Mulvaney regarding the below Vet., He talked to and felt that she was deserving of some assistance from the Michigan Patriot Guard. Karmen is an Army Veteran who served from 1983 to 1989 with the 1st Cav., and at Ft. Hood. She is currently unemployed, lost her job in Sept. She is signed up for the VA, and is currently in an apartment in Saginaw, with the assistance of the people at the V.A. Her family lives up north and she wanted to visit them over Christmas, but, had no funds for travel. He wanted to know if the MPG could provide funding for gas cards for this Veteran to assist her during this time of need. Through some quick research and due diligence we decided that she met all the criteria for assistance and a $200.00 Visa card for gas expenses was delivered to her in time for her to drive up to visit and receive some much needed support and love from her family. A Veteran goes into debt over bad truck repairs. A Veteran who is very careful with his fixed income had some bad truck repairs had to use a credit card to pay $2500.00 to have his pickup truck repaired all over again by a reputable car dealer. The card payments were making his carefully budgeted bills fall behind. We were able to help this Hero pay the credit card off and allow him to live within his means again and take a lot of weight off of his shoulders. A recently discharged Veteran who fought in the Afghanistan War. Times are tough for our young Veterans getting back from their tour in the sandbox. Not many job opportunities, and usually they are further in debt when they get back then when the go in. This was the case for a Husband and Father of 3 recently Honorably Discharged Hero. He was not able to find a job and was sinking fast financially. His rent was overdue and because he was a Veteran his landlord was trying to wait but couldn’t wait much longer. We paid $2000.00 for his past and future rent payments and gave this Veteran the chance to catch up and have a chance again. Now he and his family can quit worrying about losing their home. A Veteran dies and his wife and son needed our help. We were contacted about a terminally ill Gulf War Veteran. Jonathon was diagnosed with terminal cancer and his wife Nicole had to quit her job to stay home and help him. The VA was working on this case but the bills were piling up fast and they needed help now! His wife explained that her husband had Crones Disease and then found out he had cancer when it was too late. We received the news that he had passed away. His funeral was now set and the Patriot Guard Riders were scheduled to Stand in his Honor. He had no life insurance because of the Crones Disease and now his young wife and 5 year old son were left alone. She needed to catch up on her bills so she would not lose their home. The Allocation Committee went to work gathering bills, copies of his DD214, and all the information they could gather. They made a recommendation to the MPG BOD and the BOD discussed it and deemed this to be a great match for what we do. First we arranged to meet with one of the Ride Captains for his funeral and gave him a $700.00 Wal-Mart gift card so she could give their son a Christmas that she thought would never happen. Then we contacted all their creditors and utilities and we were able to negotiate with them and paid $5300.00 and her bills are paid up until April 2014. While nothing eases the pain when you lose your spouse, the Michigan Patriot Guard was able to take a lot of weight off her shoulders and reassured her that we will NEVER FORGET the price that Johnathon paid for our freedom. These are a few of the many Heroes the Michigan Patriot Guard helped in the last year. Please remember to participate in the fund raising and efforts of the Michigan Patriot Guard Inc. Remember, all the money we raise stays here in Michigan to help our Heroes. We are all unpaid volunteers and we need your help to continue to HELP OUR HEROES. A Veteran fighting Cancer needs help. We had a Veteran who was behind on her bills due to losing her job when she needed time off to have surgery to fight her Breast Cancer. She was a single parent and served in the 80s and did not serve in a time of war so she was not eligible for some of the funding available to War Veterans. She just got a job with the County Office of Veteran Affairs and now can pay her bills AND help other Veterans but the past due bills were a financial hurdle she just could not get over. We paid $4500.00 of her outstanding bills and allowed her to move ahead and get on with her life for her and her young son. Once again through the fundraising efforts of the MPG and the generous donations of the good citizens of Michigan we were able to in some small way thank another Hero for their Service! These are just some of the HEROES that fought for our FREEDOM that the Michigan Patriot Guard was able to help out just last year!
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 22:25:16 +0000
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