Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Toad on April 30, 2004, 08:14:04 PM
-
C.A.U.S.E. (http://www.cause-usa.org/projects.asp)
Gentlemen:
Cause is a nonprofit organization providing comfort items for troops recuperating in military hospitals and rehabilitation centers from wounds and injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan and in other military theaters.
I am currently in DC and have met the lady that is the driving force behind this organization. For this effort and for many other charitable organizations and efforts she supports, I respect and admire her very, very greatly. Her husband was my brother's roommate at the High School on the Hudson, so both of these people are well known by my family. They have a long history of going "above and beyond" for worthy causes.
There is true need for almost everything imaginable. If you have a business or can influence the company you work for to contribute, please check with CAUSE to see what you can do. If those conditions don't apply, you can simply donate.
I'll give you one example of what they face: An army specialist survived an explosion due to the Interceptor vest. However, while he lived, he lost both arms and legs and is now blind. This man has a wife and kids. He's going to need a special vehicle with a hoist arrangement to get around to doctors after discharge. The wife is a truly strong person. She's holding up well but clearly, this family is going to need a very lot of help, starting with a new hoist equipped van. CAUSE intends to make that happen.
Now, the intended audience is my fellow Americans and no one needs answer this post. The website is available to all, of course. If you choose to act, do so. Please let's not use this thread as yet another political bashfest over the war.
"For or against" should not concern anyone here. These guys were simply doing their duty, as ordered. Let's put aside the politics for once.
Thanks!
-
Thx for the Link.
Is on my list of things to do .
At the top of my list!
-
one of two punts
-
I'm a bit hurtin' financially... but I'm good for a punt or two.
-
I'll add a question Toad, why is there the need of such a charity ?
I mean it's more a problem of solidarity of the nation to it's soldier ?
-
How are things going in DC? - tried to email you, but email got bounced.
orangebeet1e@yahoo.co.uk
-
punt.
-
Punterino
I did my little part on the flight home last Saturday. Bought a round for the 3 Marines in my row. They are doing urban warfare training at the abandoned base housing about a mile from my workplace.
-
$50 bucks to them as of just right now.
Good place to send the money for the old wargames I sold on ebay. Now if we could just get something going like this for the Ghurkas.
Ravs
-
Thank you, Ravs. Much appreciated.
Straffo,
At this time CAUSE is focused on Walter Reed and Bethesda military hospitals. The most seriously injured soldiers go to these two places, the Army to Reed and the Marines to Bethesda. These troops have the missing limbs, head wounds, etc.
While the medical facilities are first rate, like most military operations, there is not much in the way of non-mission oriented equipment or "extras".
For example, a seriously wounded 19 year old, making low "Specialist" pay, doesn't have access to inexpensive telephone service. Usually, just a pay phone or calling collect from room phones. So, CAUSE solicited money for "phone cards" that allow these kids to call their sweethearts or their families without spending a fortune.
Also, they've found that some games actually help these guys recover. Right now they are looking for pinball machines. Standing at the machines and repetitively using the brain to instruct the fingers seems to improve balance and helps regenerate some of the nerve impulses in the "head wound" cases. The military does not equip the wards with such games. CAUSE steps up and gets the job done.
The same sort of thing seems to happen with Playstation and X-Box, with the additional bonus of helping these guys pass their boring recovery time.
CAUSE is helping fill the "non-standard" needs that the military never would think about.
Thanks to all.
-
The wife (Financial officer) is delegating $100 of this months budget to C.A.U.S.E.
Thanks for sharing the link, Toad.
-
Ty Toad I understand better the role of the CAUSE.
I thought CAUSE was more acting on the medical part than in the environement that's why I was surprised.
-
Thanks again to all.
Once again, this is a tax deductible non-profit, so save evidence that you contributed. Might as well use money that would have went to taxes for something truly worthwhile.
Cause is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization registered in Virginia: all contributions to Cause are tax deductible
Straffo,
I suppose, in time, a lot of these needs and items will be supplied through the military itself. However, all that has to go through a budget/spending approval process.
As one nurse commented to Joyce, "We formally request this stuff all the time and then we wait and wait and wait. We just mention it to you and the next day you show up carrying it in hand."
CAUSE is made up of doers. That's what I like about them. It's all volunteer and their "overhead costs" basically are non-existent. In short, if you give a $1, you can figure a $1 went to the troopers.
-
Mr. Toad,
A laudable CAUSE indeed. :aok I may make a donation of my own, but first I feel I should see if their is an equivalent organisation representing the interests of British servicemen injured in Iraq.
I do believe you were a Viet Nam vet? How did you feel about government treatment of the returning servicemen, particularly those who were seriously injured in that conflict? I just wonder because I saw "Born on the 4th of July" last night, and was pretty appalled. I had seen that movie once before - at the cinema in 1989. For some reason, it had even more impact this time. Injured vets being shoved into dirty hospitals, substandard and broken down medical equipment, nurses who didn't give a fig...
Maybe things have changed for the better. I hope so. I'd like to think that our governments give disabled veterans the care they need upon their return.
But there seems to be a strange anomaly here. On one hand, the US government couldn't wait to wage war in Iraq and went waving its wallet to the tune of $180bn to fight the war. (That's the figure I heard the Democrats quote - New Hampshire primary?) But then when it's over, the interests of the servicemen injured/disabled in the conflict rely on voluntary contributions like this, in some cases ^ from overseas donations. I think that's wrong. If the government has the wherewithal to send guys into conflict, it should also provide for their needs when they return disabled, and not abandon their fate to voluntary donations.
-
Good cause, but i would prefer to send a postcard to a random patient if that was possible.
-
Just Paypal'ed $50 in Toad ... <
> ... thanks for bringing this to light.
-
Well beetle,
It was and is my belief that the coalition went into Iraq to make it a more democratic country. As we've seen, it's going to be a really tough road.
I was more than happy to make the donation to the people at the sharp end - regardless of their nationality.
The world is getting so small, the foreigners will soon be people from other planets.
Ravs
-
Slap,
Sir! Thanks!
There is a PayPal link for CAUSE. Go ahead, it's pretty painless! ;)
http://www.cause-usa.org/donate.asp
Beet,
I think it's the nature of the military procurement process in our system. In short, it's the law and how the system works.
There are huge multinational companies that will lobby the Congress for the latest super-duper maxi-blaster kill 'em quick machinery and the lobbies will sling money to Congressmen like there's no tomorrow.
OTOH, trying to get funding for something as plain vanilla as RO/RO ships to get the machinery to where it is needed is next to impossible.
So too for anything considered as an "extra" in a military hospital, I guess. They've got the CT imaging machines but a "phone card allowance" for injured personnel? Congress won't even glance at that.
There's also the "who'd have thought it" aspect with the gaming equipment. Before this happened, would anyone have figured every floor ought to have a couple of Playstations and X-boxes to help heal synapses or just to keep these kids from going stir-crazy?
Lastly, there's absolutely no doubt that CAUSE is a lean, mean DO-IT machine. This stuff gets done RIGHT NOW, not after six study groups make suggestions and changes for six months and then Congress haggles over budgeting for a year. That's why I like them.
Do I wish Congress had funded this stuff before the war? Sure. I don't blame them for not knowing they needed it though and I understand how slow ANY governmental process seems to be.
As for VietNam, one of the reasons for that was that the VA system didn't get much money prior to and during. As I said, it's not the glamourous war-fighting part of the budget. Then there was the whole "guns and butter" thing..... common sense told anyone who thought about it that THAT wasn't going to work. Somebody (or some aspect) always has to pay.
-
punt. Eagler.
Ravs
-
thanks Rav
donation otw
-
Good man!
Ravs
-
Originally posted by ravells
Good man!
Ravs
fwiw
I donate monthly to this group, have for years
AmVets (http://www.amvets.org/HTML/for_our_members/florida.htm#Brandon)
-
Last punt in my punt gun.
-
Punt