Asking for a little help

I have trouble doing this. I’m not a person who asks for help from other people. Yet there are times when I have to do something for a worthwhile cause, and this cause is one I am willing to support.

Before I go into the details, I want everyone to understand something about me. I donate to a charity or someone in need at least once a year. I don’t do it to make myself feel good about it or to toot my own horn. In fact, I don’t really have any feelings about it except the knowledge that I had helped someone in need. That is enough for me.

I had already donated at the beginning of this year. I’m glad I had done so then, because I’m not in any stable financial situation right now. I’m beyond strapped for cash due to unexpected circumstances dating from my blog hiatus in July.

Still, don’t misunderstand the nature of this post. I donated again, back on Wednesday Oct. 28, despite my personal situation. I would never make a post asking for people’s help if I myself did not believe in the cause AND donated first. I gave what I could to help those less fortunate. As the saying goes, ‘even a little bit helps.’

The charity is called Valour-IT, overseen by the Soldier’s Angels Foundation. One of my dear fellow bloggers Suldog made an excellent post about it. I believe he captured the essence of the Foundation’s goals better than I could ever write it, in a way I had never expected.

Suldog talked about one of his fears concerning amputation and amputees. The lost of a limb can be emotionally traumatic not only for the person it happened to, but by those people around them. I shiver when thinking what would happen if I lost a part of myself and could no longer write. Here is a snippet from his post.
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Every day, in military hospitals and physical therapy centers across this land, there are people facing my greatest fear. They’re doing so because they saw it as their duty to put their lives on the line for you and me. They didn’t lose their lives, though. Instead, they lost their ability to function as independently as they did before being wounded grievously.

In fighting for our freedom, they have lost much of their own.

Let me state something important before we go on. Many of you are well aware of how I feel regarding some of the United States’ military adventures. If it were up to me, I’d have most of our troops home before you could wink an eye. I categorically do NOT support my country’s actions in some instances. Some of you may feel the same way. That’s not what’s important in this case, though. Whatever our feelings concerning the actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the men and women in harm’s way in those conflicts are making the sacrifices they make with selfless intent. And I would be some kind of miserable human being if I used my political beliefs as a crutch to absolve me from helping them during their time of greatest need.

They didn’t ask me my feelings before putting their lives on the line. They just did it. And now I’m doing what I feel is right and necessary. I’m trying to help them heal. That’s the right thing to do, under all circumstances and with no exception.

How am I trying to help, in the small way that I’m able? Via something called Valour-IT.

Valour-IT is a wonderful program (run independent of the armed forces, the Department of Defense, or any other governmental agency) supplying wounded veterans with some good tools to aid in their rehabilitation, both mentally and physically. For instance, those veterans who have suffered major injuries to their hands will be supplied with voice-activated laptop computers.

Most of us are writers of one sort or another, whether professionally or just for pleasure. Imagine yourself suddenly deprived of that ability to write, the ability to use a computer keyboard or otherwise communicate via the written word. What would it be worth to you to regain that ability? You know the answer. It would be worth the world.

Valour-IT performs that miracle. They give back the world to someone who lost it.

I’m donating to this version of an angel’s work. I’m asking you to look into your heart and find it there to do so, also.

(I’m not just using a figure of speech when I say "angel’s work", by the way. This charity was started, and is overseen by, Soldier’s Angels, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity. All donations are tax-deductible. And, as stated previously, they are not affiliated with the government, and any government employees involved in the organization, or in the fund-raising, are doing so as private citizens.)
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You can read his full post here, or visit the Valour-IT and Soldier’s Angels websites directly.