River Community Wellness Gets Huge Donations From Philanthropist

Philanthropist, 97, gives River Hospital $1m
Watertown Daily
By KENNETH J. EYSAMAN
MAGAZINE EDITOR
PUBLISHED: MONDAY, JULY 27, 2015

Launched in February 2013, the River Community Wellness Program is the nation’s only civilian outpatient treatment program serving soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. The Army announced May 13 the program would end in July. But on May 30, Army officials agreed to a reprieve.

ALEXANDRIA BAY — A $1 million donation by a longtime north country philanthropist will kick-start a capital campaign aimed at helping River Hospital expand its River Community Wellness Program, hospital Chief Executive Officer Ben Moore III announced Sunday.

Retired businessman and philanthropist Richard R. Macsherry, 97, shared news of his latest gift with nearly 250 hospital supporters gathered for River Hospital Foundation’s 13th annual Festive Evening at Bonnie Castle Resort and Marina.

“This is my 98th year on the river,” Mr. Macsherry said, adding that the hospital is an “important institution worth our support.”

Three years ago, Mr. Macsherry, then 94, suffered a serious injury after a fall that required him to be airlifted to a hospital in Utica, said his son, Richard H., a retired hospital administrator and member of River Hospital’s Board of Trustees.
read more here

Iraq Veteran Missing in Ohio

Happy Update: 
Missing Upper Arlington Veteran Returns Home

Police search for missing Upper Arlington veteran 
NBC 4 News Ohio
By Nick Bechtel
Published: July 25, 2015

UPPER ARLINGTON (WCMH) — Police are searching for an endangered missing person Saturday evening.

Upper Arlington officials said Christopher Bock-Bacalao was reported missing on Saturday.

A police sergeant said he made threats against his well-being before he went missing.

Family members told NBC4 he is a rowing coach at Upper Arlington High School.

They also said he was an Army veteran who served one tour in Iraq. read more here

Congress Passed the Americans with Disabilities Act 25 Years Ago?

A soldier gets paid this much to risk their lives and spend 24-7 in service to the country.

VA Compensation

So we have some folks now getting $15.00 an hour for a "minimum wage" and some think that is great.

$670 a week is what a 100% disabled veteran receives as compensation.

If you look at it as a 40 hour a week paycheck they are missing since they cannot work, that boils down to $16.75 an hour for disabilities they suffer with 24-7. There are 168 hours in a week. That means they get less than $4.00 an hour for what they have to live with every day of the year for the rest of their lives.

When you think that veterans are having a hard time finding jobs, remember that they don't just want to work, they have to just to be able to live.

As for the rest of the article showing that employers are still reluctant to hire veterans they need to remember that while it is true most veterans do not have PTSD, there is no assurance anyone sitting across the desk from them doesn't have it.  Folks get PTSD from a long list of things in their own lives.  At least with a veteran you know they are used to hard work, working as a team in really bad conditions while thinking fast and pushing themselves to the limit of endurance.  Sounds like the perfect worked to me as well as among the best this country has to offer.  It isn't just patriotic to hire a veteran.  It is a smart thing to do!

People With Disabilities Are Twice As Likely To Be Poor. These Businesses Are Fighting That Stat
Huffington Post
Eleanor Goldberg
Impact editor
Posted: 07/26/2015

The staggering unemployment and poverty rates among people with disabilities is a reminder of how much work still needs to be done to protect this underserved demographic.

Sunday marks 25 years since Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act, a bill that aimed to give the group equal opportunities to pursue jobs and public and private services. While some vital progress has been made, people with disabilities still face incredible challenges when it comes to obtaining employment and becoming financially stable.

"Employers are scared to hire us," Debbie Eagle, who’s been blind since she was born, told NPR.

"Because they don't know what kind of accommodations we require. And if they don't meet what we consider to be reasonable accommodations, they're afraid we'll sue them."

Eagle, 43, has a bachelor’s degree in special education and said she’d love more than anything to be able to find work and stop relying on government assistance.

Michael Morris, executive director of the National Disability Institute, agrees with Eagle and told NPR that the issue at hand is that “attitudes are slow to change.”

Veterans, both those with disabilities and without, are facing an overwhelming amount of such stigma when they return home.

While most veterans come back without any emotional issues, experts say that hiring managers are skeptical that vets will “go postal” while on the job, USA Today reported in 2013.
read more here

VietnamVeteran Deserves Standing Ovation

McCrabb: Vietnam veteran deserves standing ovation
Journal News
By Rick McCrabb Staff Writer
July 26, 2015

“I’m proud of my service, like the other vets,” he said. “We were all anti-war like the rest of the country. I just wish people weren’t anti-solider. I never was comfortable talking about the war.”

MIDDLETOWN — There was a time — the day before Army Lt. Dan Sack was scheduled to arrive home in Cincinnati after serving during the Vietnam War — when he was spit on while walking through Haight-Ashbury, a neighborhood district near San Francisco and fertile ground for the hippie generation.

Sack and an Army buddy took a taxi from the Oakland Army base and toured the neighborhood on a Sunday afternoon. As they walked down the street, proudly wearing their uniforms, hundreds of hippies exited the neighborhood stores, and started chanting, “Ticket To Kill. Ticket To Kill. Ticket to Kill.”

He still doesn’t understand the meaning behind the words.

Patriotism, he said, hit “rock bottom” in the late 1960s.

Thankfully, before a riot ensued, Sack and his friend were picked up by a military police unit, put in the back seat of a government vehicle and driven to safety.

“I could have died the day before I got home,” he said.

Now, 47 years later, Sack will receive a much different reception that will include a standing ovation, not spitting. Sack, 70, of Middletown, will be one of the five veterans honored on Aug. 2 during a Dayton Dragons baseball game at Fifth/Third Field. He will appear on the field between innings and a 60-second video highlighting his military career and community service will be shown on the scoreboard.

Sack’s life, and for that matter, some of Middletown’s history, could have been rewritten on a February 1968 morning.

Sack and Jan Doxey, 22, of Florida, were sleeping in a hooch when a 122mm rocket exploded in the early dawn, sending Sack under Doxey’s bunk. Sack’s legs were filled with shrapnel, and he was temporarily deaf.

But Doxey was killed.
read more here

Finalist For Ms Veteran America Served in the Air Force

Military vet with Alma ties competes for Ms. Veteran America
The Morning Sun
July 26, 2015

Anne Kitchen grew up in Alma and is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force who was announced as a top 25 finalist for Ms. Veteran America 2015.

She competed in the national semi-finals back in May and is now competing for the crown on Oct. 18.

Kitchen began her military career in December of 2004, and thereafter served six years active duty in the United States Air Force as a meteorologist.

The main focus for Ms. Veteran America is to raise awareness and end homelessness among women veterans.

The competition highlights more than the strength, courage, and sacrifice of the nations military women, but also reminds people that these women are mothers, daughters, sisters and wives.
read more here