Urgent Needs

HOHF needs to keep a minimum of $50,000 coming in EVERY month in order to meet the current need. We anticipate the need growing as the cost to travel grows during the holiday season and families need to be together.

• Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) has approximately 55 new ICU patients every month from Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom, continually increasing our need to help.
• Medical Hold at WRAMC has over 800 patients who live there now, and most will be in Medical Hold for 6-12 months. MANY have their families living there with them. We are requesting grants for funds to keep their families with them at the hospital, giving these heroes a better way to recuperate.

Fran O'Brien's
Friday Night Steak Dinners

For over one year now patients have been invited to attend a special steak dinner at Fran O'Brien's Steak House in Washington DC. The incredible meal is provided by sponsors, and patients from WRAMC and their guests are bused in. The friends of the Helping Our Heroes Foundation has been providing the 50 person bus and wheelchair van for the event as of August 2004. Donors are needed to continue payment of this transportation service to ensure that the event is able to continue on while we serve our new vets.

A donation of $500 allows the foundation to rent a bus for one evening. The event provides an opportunity for new amputees to integrate back into society while in a safe atmosphere of "similarly injured" colleagues. They learn to enter and exit the transportation vehicle, navigate a public facility, order and eat their food in a new fashion, and encounter ordinary tribulations which would be awesome were they to attempt first on their own.

Please consider sending your donation for this worthwhile cause to:

Helping Our Heroes Foundation,
21010 Southbank Street, #805,
Potomac Falls, VA 20165

Mark your check "Dinner Transportation" and we will ensure that you are noted as the donor towards a wonderful evening.

Hard Goods donations

Please contact us via email BEFORE sending any hard goods to the foundation.

Storage is limited, and we would like to discuss your donation and its level of need before you ship.

• Computers
• Printers
• Vocational Books
• Career Counseling Information
• Self-Help Books
• Gift certificates for clothing
• Electric Razors
• DVD's & CD's
• Electronic games
• Videos
• Resume Stationery
• Blank Journals

Education

The HOHF identified the need to provide schooling and vocational training for those soldiers seriously injured from OIF/OEF. While many patients recuperate for months in the hospital, they only attend therapy for a few hours a day and may be left alone for the remainder of the time. While they may not be able to fully determine their future career plans at this time, most understand that additional schooling in any scenario is a bonus and perhaps even a necessity.

Scholarships

The HOHF is working to provide interim "online" scholarships for limited periods of time to those interested and hospitalized. Karen Theobald and volunteer advisor Robert McNamara Jr. have identified available online universities to provide scholarships for injured soldiers. Those interested should email for an update on the program.

Computers

The foundation is working to obtain donated computers for the soldiers to utilize while being schooled. During a speech to WOMEN in DEFENSE in July 2004, Karen Theobald mentioned the need for computers to her audience of defense contractors. Within weeks, two corporations had stepped forward and were willing to initiate the computer drive with donations of approximately 40 desktops.

These initial computers were serviced, had software installed, and were placed in the WRAMC Education Center for soldiers to use. In the future, laptops may be obtained for those needing bedside access, and additional desktops may be distributed to other regional locations within the military medical system.

Please consider donating your company's late model used computers and equipment to the HOHF Foundation to assist in educating a hero.

Career Placement, Networking, Library and more

The HOHF has initiated a plan to prepare those soldiers interested in entering the civilian workplace after their medical discharge. Resume writing, career counseling, and networking skills will be taught by professionals and volunteers at various times through out the year.

A Career Library is being organized to include books on career change, resume writing, top companies to work for, etc. and will be located in the WRAMC complex. Donors for these items are being sought at this time.