Kansas City, Mo., - The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) is providing U.S. service members — with relatives currently located in Haiti — with the funds necessary to purchase airline tickets to the devastated island, so that they may locate, assist or make burial arrangements for relatives affected by the recent earthquake.
Funds also may be used to help provide sustenance or other necessities to sustain life.
The veterans' organization donation will be used to assist U.S. service members currently on active duty or in the National Guard or Reserves.
VFW National Commander Tommy J. Tradewell Sr., has asked VFW and its Ladies Auxiliary members to come to the aid of victims of the recent natural disaster by individually donating what they can to the VFW National Military Services program (NMS), either online, text [text "VFW" to 90999 - standard text messaging rates apply], or mail directly to VFW National Military Services, 406 W. 34th Street, Kansas City, MO 64111.
In addition, he has asked the 7,000 VFW posts and auxiliary units worldwide to donate to the NMS fund to help in this effort.
"We (VFW) were contacted by the military and informed that there is an urgent need to assist a number of U.S. military men and women with this emergent need and that is why I am asking for help, so that we can respond immediately to assist our military service members," said Tradewell. "We must unite as an organization to do everything we can to make sure the appropriate resources are available to help the men and women who have loved ones residing in the area impacted by this terrible tragedy."
Tradewell said he can only imagine the heartbreak and fear that military members with families living in Haiti are experiencing.
"It is heart-breaking for our military families who have loved ones living in Haiti to have to cope with such a disaster without the means to travel to the island to care for displaced or injured family members. It also is a sad and tragic situation for those U.S. service men and women who are deployed thousands of miles away from the disaster who have confirmed that relatives were killed during the earthquake and need to assist in burial arrangements.
"The VFW will do whatever necessary to ensure our troops have the means of transportation necessary to care for their families in Haiti and every dollar donated will be used for VFW's National Military Services Program."