In a video shown at the Aiken Rotary Club on Monday, three former veterans described how the Aiken-Augusta Warrior Project has helped them in so many ways - traversing the many complex opportunities available to them to get on with their lives.
In many ways, all three said the program saved their lives - arranging medical treatment, helping them get jobs and essential services, helping them stay afloat.
"We've been recognized as one of the best practices for taking care of veterans," said Kim Elle, the nonprofit's executive director.
That includes recognition by the George W. Bush Institute in Texas.
The program is also referred to as AWP and the Augusta Warrior Project.
Tom Matthews, the Warrior Project's Board chairman, pointed out the U.S. has 22 million veterans, with 66,000 of them in the CRSA.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, 2.8 million servicemen and women were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Two-thirds have never checked in with Veterans Affairs, he said.
In the CRSA, the Warrior Project has helped 250 veterans move into homes and has served hundreds more in a matter of months, he said.
"We look at this as a community issue, helping them look for a job, get their benefits," Matthews said. "We try to help people, and these are the people we brag about."
The Warrior Project will require more funding for its community efforts in order maintain those services beyond the next two years, Matthews said.
Elle, a 20-year military veteran and former assistant professor at the Air Force Academy, described her conversation with one veteran who was having a tough time.
"He gave me 12 things he needed to deal with," Elle said. "This guy is Special Forces and needed an amputation."
In 24 hours, the Warrior Project got in touch with the Veteran's Administration and was able to resolve 10 of the 12 issues. After a call to Ft. Gordon, the veteran got the amputation he needed four days later.
"The cool thing," Elle said, "is that he had been a monthly donor to the Warrior Project - $20 a month, every month."
In the video, veteran Virginia Cobert discussed her emotional issues that dated back to 2000. She started living with family members and friends with no home of her own.
Through the Warrior Project last year, "They empowered me, that I have rights."
She has her own home now, and "AWP has helped restore what I had lost."
For more information, call 706-951-7506 or email poc@augustawarriorproject.org.
Senior writer Rob Novit is the Aiken Standard's education reporter and has been with the newspaper since September 2001. He is a native of Walterboro and majored in journalism at the University of Georgia.