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What is VAVS?
The Department of Veterans Affairs Voluntary Service (VAVS) was officially founded in 1946 as a program to provide for our nation's veterans while they are cared for by VA health care facilities.
VAVS is the largest volunteer program in the Federal government.
More than 350 national and community organizations support VAVS. Since 1946, VAVS volunteers have donated 495 million hours of service.
As VA has expanded its care of veteran patients into the community, volunteers have become involved.
They assist veteran patients by augmenting staff in such settings as end of life care programs, foster care, community-based volunteer programs, hospital wards, nursing homes, and veteran outreach centers.
VAVS volunteers are special and generous people.
They and their organizations annually contribute an estimated $40 million in gifts and donations.
In FY2000, all VAVS volunteers contributed a total of 13,190,568 hours of service to veterans.
Monetary estimates aside, it is impossible to calculate the amount of caring and sharing that these VAVS volunteers give to veteran patients.
VAVS volunteers are a priceless asset to America's veterans and to VA.
Anyone interested in helping out with our VAVS program, should contact Marine
Bill Perkins Jr. at 717-426-2243.
Other VAVS Links
Volunteers enter their ZIP code on the VolunteerMatch web site (www.volunteermatch.org)
to find volunteer opportunities posted by nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations.
The ease and simplicity of the service have already resulted in hundreds of thousands of connections between volunteers and organizations, providing real-world community assistance nationwide.
Working with thousands of
local nonprofits, VolunteerMatch has become the web's largest database of volunteer opportunities.
The Foundation's mission is to engage more people more effectively in volunteer community service to help solve serious social problems.
Motivated by the urgent need to collect the stories and experiences of war veterans while they are still among us, the U.S. Congress created the Veterans History Project in October 2000.
The legislation calls upon the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to collect and preserve audio- and video-taped oral histories, along with documents such as letters, diaries, maps, photographs, and
home movies, of America's war veterans and those who served in support of them during World War I, World War II, and the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf wars.
This Web site tells you about the project and invites your participation in this national effort.
This initiative by the Points of Light Foundation is an encouragement to American's to remember those who died in the September 11th attack by contributing and volunteering in their communities.
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