The Veterans Services Center (VSC) recently received two generous donations in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. These donations were made in order to ease the impact of the virus by providing the center with resources to continue “serving those who served,” according to the Veterans Services Center mission statement.
In late March, the Veterans Services Center was notified about two different donations. The donors would like to keep their identities private along with the amount of money of each donation.
“The donors worked through UW Foundation, and learned of our program at UW, and forwarded two very generous gifts. These donors had a specific desire to support military and veterans attending post-secondary education … [and] mentioned a desire to support our program due to their own personal connections and experiences with the military community.” said Marty Martinez, Project Coordinator for VSC. “This is often the case as we introduce our program to potential donors, they understand and empathize with the importance of military service and challenges facing veterans as they re-integrate to civilian life and especially academia,” said Martinez.
Due to the state of the economy because of the COVID-19, many people are tight on money. Martinez mentioned the possibility of existing donors lessening their contributions to the VSC, making these two recent donations especially helpful.
“The VSC sponsors a new student veteran orientation, three academic courses, a summer bridge program and provides free tutors to further assist veterans as they meet the challenge of transitioning from Warrior to Scholar… The VSC operation budget relies on 100% donor funding, each year, to continue our services, outreach, and support,” said Martinez when asked how the money from the donations would be used.
The Veterans Services Center is a program on campus that aids veterans and their dependents with support and services of all kinds. The program is meant to give the nearly 700 students with connections to the military at UW an opportunity to meet others who they can relate to, as well as access to military related resources.
The center “has developed outstanding and effective services and programs for service members, veterans, and military dependents transitioning from the military to undergraduate and graduate education, employment, and civilian life,” Martinez said.
While the building is no longer physically open as the nation waits out the pandemic, they have not stopped offering support to veterans in need. The Veterans Services Center staff has been working remotely online from their homes, organizing things like Zoom meetings, online gaming and Facebook discussions to continue connecting with students.
