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Help is There for Those Who Ask

Thanks to all of you who have been joining us here. The response has been wonderful.  We just past 3,800 new subscribers. That was a huge increase in 2016. We only had 1,000 two years ago. In 2017 help us to make it to 4,000.

We are only 200 away of reaching our goal.  We will be giving a prize to the person who is our 4,000th person to subscribe. 

Help us make it to 4,000 by subscribing today if you haven’t already. This shows you care for veterans. Just click on the icon right after the title of this post to do that, and the posts will come straight to your inbox.                            ____________________________________________________________

Doug Bolton, the founder of the blog, Signs of Hope, which is at www.dailysignsofhope.com, has written a new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.” It reaches out the many military and veterans who may be battling anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, rejections, and the many other usual suspects. There are 22 military connected suicides every day. That is almost one every hour. Doug wants to help stop those statistics.  

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This is a new social network just for veterans. I joined it and made instant friendships with veterans who want to talk about what I want to talk about. Please check it out. You will be glad you did. 

www.rallypoint.com/join/spc-douglas-bolton

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I have a guest blogger today. His name is Steve Durgin. He is the Founder and CEO of the Victory for Veterans Foundation. I have the honor of being on the board for that organization. What Steve shares here is what VFV is all about. Please join us in making this new nonprofit a huge success. 

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Hi folks,

As I read through Bill and Melinda Gates Annual Newsletter 2017 for their Foundation I came away amazed and optimistic. Optimistic for our global future in eradicating disease, premature deaths, malnutrition, health issues and other major global concerns. My hat is off to all who participate alongside the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in this great work! If you haven’t read their newsletter it is an awesome read… Here’s a link to it: https://www.gatesnotes.com/2017-Annual-Letter?WT.mc_id=02_21_2017_08_AL2017_BG-LI_&WT.tsrc=BGLI

I want to share a quote from them that “’All lives have equal value’ is not just a principal; it’s a strategy”. This is the premise that the poorest are equal to the richest. The diseased and infected are valued equally to the most healthy person alive. We believe our Veterans are of equal value to others as well.

Melinda Gates said, “Optimism is a huge asset. We can always use more of it. But optimism isn’t a belief that things will automatically get better; it’s a conviction that we can make things better.”

As we begin building the Victory For Veterans Foundation, I used the word hope in my founder video (coming soon). I think hope and optimism are close sisters! We are optimistic that all of us care enough to help tackle the problems our Veterans face when they are done with their service to our nation; to us for providing the freedom we have come to enjoy and rely on!

Like Bill Gates said, “We want to end our letter with the most magical number we know. It’s zero. … In our case, nothing would make us happier than going out of business because we’ve achieved our goals.”

At Victory For Veterans, we believe our magic number is also Zero. Zero suicides. Zero homeless. Zero untreated for PTSD, TBI, MST and other debilitating challenges. These are hard to accomplish but with optimism and hope – success is around the corner.

Finally I wanted to share how Victory For Veterans Foundation is different than other nonprofit organizations. As Melinda Gates wrote, “That’s why we have not used your money just to send a grant here and a grant there. We’ve been using it to build an ecosystem of partners that shares its genius to improve lives and end disease.”

We believe in building this “ecosystem of partners” that will bring the best of the best; best practices, best people together to meet our goal of zero. It is this development of partners we believe sets us apart from others and will be a formula for success.

We need your help to build this ecosystem of partners who will share their geniuses with others to save and improve the lives of our Veterans.

“They Fought for our Freedom, let’s Fight for Theirs!”

Please join us in this fight.

Steve Durgin, Founder

Victory For Veterans Foundation, Inc.

Steve

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Steve Durgin, Founder

925.464.9107

Web: www.VictoryForVeterans.org

FaceBook: @VFVets (www.FaceBook.com/VFVets)

Twitter: @VictoryVets (www.twitter.com/VictoryVets)

LinkedIn: Victory For Veterans (www.linkedin.com/company/Victory-For-Veterans)

“They Fought for our Freedom, Let’s Fight for Theirs!”

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all….never, ever, give up!

There is always help for veterans at:  24/7 at: 1-800-273-8255

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Reach Out and Find New Veteran Friends

Thanks to all of you who have been joining us here. The response has been wonderful.  We just past 3,745 new subscribers. That is a huge increase in 2016. We only had 1,000 two years ago. In 2017 help us to make it to 4,000. We are only 255 away of reaching our goal.  Help us make it by subscribing today if you haven’t already. This shows you care for veterans. Just click on the icon right after the title of this post to do that, and the posts will come straight to your inbox.                            ____________________________________________________________

Doug Bolton, the founder of the blog, Signs of Hope, which is at www.dailysignsofhope.com, has written a new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.” It reaches out the many military and veterans who may be battling anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, rejections, and the many other usual suspects. There are 22 military connected suicides every day. That is almost one every hour. Doug wants to help stop those statistics.  

______________________________________________________________

This is a new social network just for veterans. I joined it and made instant friendships with veterans who want to talk about what I want to talk about. Please check it out. You will be glad you did. 

www.rallypoint.com/join/spc-douglas-bolton

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I am a member of RallyPoint. It is a “social network,” That is for veterans only. It is not a small new start-up. There are over 500,000 members and growing fast.

Why is it growing so fast? It is because a veteran can go and talk to another veteran who understands them better than anyone else. They can “spill,” their guts out and know they are safe with the friends they know and trust.

I have made over 4,000 connections, and many are becoming close friends.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because you may be feeling lost and alone as a veteran. You can become a part of RallyPoint, and have many people who will support you and have your back.

I often go to the discussion page and rant about my woes, and frustrations. Usually I get positive replies, and sometimes an old drill sergeant tells me to stop crying and move on. I need that also once and awhile.

I encourage you, if you are a veteran to check out the network at

www.rallypoint.com/join/spc-douglas-bolton

Just try and check it out.

You can do many things with it. You can put in your hobbies and they will show you all the people who have the same hobby. You can put in your unit while you served, and they will locate all those who were in the unit as well. You can put in your rank and be friends with everyone who has the same rank.

All branches of the service are there including some civilians who have family connections to a veteran.

Let me know how you did by making a comment below.

There is always help for you 24/7 at: 1-800-273-8255

http://www.victoryforveterans.org

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up! 

 

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So Many Veterans Take Their Own Lives

Thanks to all of you who have been joining us here. The response has been wonderful.  We just past 3,745 new subscribers. That is a huge increase in 2016. We only had 1,000 two years ago. In 2017 help us to make it to 4,000. We are only 260 away of reaching our goal.  Help us make it by subscribing today if you haven’t already. This shows you care for veterans. Just click on the icon right after the title of this post to do that, and the posts will come straight to your inbox.                            ____________________________________________________________

Doug Bolton, the founder of the blog, Signs of Hope, which is at www.dailysignsofhope.com, has written a new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.” It reaches out the many military and veterans who may be battling anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, rejections, and the many other usual suspects. There are 22 military connected suicides every day. That is almost one every hour. Doug wants to help stop those statistics.  

______________________________________________________________

This is a new social network just for veterans. I joined it and made instant friendships with veterans who want to talk about what I want to talk about. Please check it out. You will be glad you did. 

www.rallypoint.com/join/spc-douglas-bolton

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One of the hardest thing to accept about the military is that there are 22 veterans who commit suicide every day. Yes I said every day.

That is not acceptable of course, and i am doing whatever I can to reach out to these brothers and sisters.

What follows is an actual post I did for the site http://www.victoryforveterans.org. It is a site dedicated to getting help for veterans for any reasons they need help. I highly recommend you check them out. Go to the blog and subscribe there so you can get the posts in your inbox like you can here.

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Why Does Someone Think of Committing Suicide? 

Suicide is a topic that no one wants to talk about.

One of the harshest realities of the military, is that 22 veterans are committing suicide every day. That includes women.

The rate of suicides is much higher than the private sector. Before I finish this post another brother or sister in the military will have ended their life.

Those are very stark statistics, but they are real.

How could someone even think of taking their own life?

That is the question everyone keeps asking. Why are there so many veterans ending their lives?

I can’t read into the minds of each of the people who have left us, but I can say that I was there myself at one time.

In 2001 I was at my lowest point in my life. I had retired for teaching in 1995, and I had a job as a clerk at Macy’s. It felt I had hit a wall. Nothing to look forward to. I felt like I was on an island by myself. How could I be feeling that when I had a loving wife, three wonderful children, and seven grandchildren.

On March 31st, 2001, I was driving my old Ford Explorer, and crying my eyes out. I didn’t even know why I was crying. I couldn’t  even drive I was sobbing so much, so I turned into a high school parking lot.

The windows all got fogged up from my crying. I was at the end of my rope, and I knew I was going to make a terrible decision soon.

I called my wife and she drove to me quickly and calmed me down. She literally help me through that day. She went back home, and I sat there relieved that I had come to my senses, and not committed suicide, but I was also angry that I was going through this nightmare. I cried out to God, I can’t take this anymore!

Then suddenly the air in the rig was different. The windows cleared up, and the air was fresher. It was if God was saying to me, It’s about time you came back to me, now let me carry you the rest of the way. 

My whole life changed that day. I went home and asked God why He saved my life? I suddenly realized that He wanted me to write a book, from my journals I had collected through the years.

So I dug them out of the closet, and opened the oldest one up. Sure enough it talked about my hurts, my good times, and how I made it through the hurts.

Much  from those journals are in my first book, Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World. 

How about you? Are you struggling. Do your days seems dark and dreary? Do you wish you could stay in bed all day and not face the world? Have you actually thought of suicide?

I hear you! I have been there. Seek help if you are lost and are feeling hopeless. There are resources you can find to help you. Don’t hide your feelings. Tell someone about your struggles and let them show you the way out of the fog of life.

This is our goal here at Victory for Veterans. We find help for anyone who is struggling. We have partners who specialize in any issue you may be facing. They can get you the much needed help you need.

http://www.victoryforveterans.org

There is always help for you 24/7 at: 1-800-273-8255

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all….never, ever, give up!