November is Veterans and Military Families’ month, and an organization committed to helping Veterans is asking for help.
The group Disabled American Veterans, a national organization that has an office in Montgomery, found that volunteerism went down 30 percent in 2020.
John Kleindienst, the director of voluntary services for the organization, said that the COVID-19 pandemic is partly to blame. Despite the setback, Kleindienst said that the organization is still committed to helping disabled veterans.
“We have a variety of needs that we want to continue to meet,” Kleindienst said. “DAV provides a transportation network for veterans to and from medical appointments and we’re seeing a significant decline in volunteers.”
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said there are nearly 400,000 veterans in the state of Alabama. As of September 2020, just over 110,000 of those vets were receiving disability compensation.
Kleindienst said it does not take much to help.
“We continue to ask individuals to consider volunteering one day a month in an effort to make a huge difference in the veterans’ lives,” he said.
To learn more about volunteering for the DAV, visit www.dav.org/help-dav/volunteer.
