I'm involved in various charitable activities throughout the year. I also try to involve my children as much as possible. I'm a big advocate of charity and the good it does. not only for others but also for ourselves. At Christmas time, we generally take part in an Angel Tree. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, they're a Christmas tree whose sole ornaments consist of Christmas wish lists. Generally, the lists are from needy children who would otherwise recieve nothing for Christmas, but we've also taken part in a tree for the elderly. Last year, we did a tree for children and had each of my three children choose a child from the tree to shop for. We then spent the day finding the items on the children's lists. This is, by far, one of our favorite holiday traditions. As much as I've enjoyed the Angel Trees, this year I'd like to do something different; I'd like to do something for our veterans.

Conservatively, one out of every three homeless men in the United States are veterans. Over 50% of homeless veterans have a drug or alcohol abuse problem that either started or worsened during military service. The suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per 100,000, while the rate for veterans is between 22.9 and 31.9 per 100,000. Why such a gap? Because nobody's every really bothered taking the time to track it. As much of an advocate as I am for children, truly there are few groups of people in greater need of our notice and concern than our veterans. How sad, that these men who have risked as much as a person can risk, who've given their very all in our defense, go forgotten. Once they've given their all, they're tossed aside, no longer needed, no longer considered important. I think it's one of our country's greatest disgraces. That said, this Christmas, I plan to channel my charitable efforts towards our veterans. Having done a bit of research on the web, I've come up with the following place to donate,

United Veteran's Beacon House

http://www.vvnw.org/Veteran_Services...House/uvbh.htm

It looks like an excellant project to help homeless veterans. Here's another great site with many different ways to support our soldiers, varying from letters and care packages to helping the wounded and disabled,

http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/am...syou/help.html

As hard as it is to be homeless, to be alone, to be forgotten....at few times is it harder than at Christmas time. We need to take up the responsibility of seeing to the care of our veterans. We can never repay our soldiers for what they've given us, but the least we can do is show them that we care, that they matter and that we haven't forgotten what they've done.

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