A Call for Help and a Generous Community Responds

A Call for Help and a Generous Community Responds

By Jerry Nowicki, Blackhawk Resident Since 1987

www.BlackhawkLivingCA.com

The Gulf war has taken a toll on the lives of many of our military and their families. The need goes well beyond the resources of our Veterans administration and the many governmental support agencies. The burden of serving those needs fall upon the many volunteer organizations spread across America. One such organization is the Folds of Honor, which is a charity that helps the families of our fallen heroes who gave their lives for our precious freedoms. The PGA sponsors Folds of Honor.

In early 2011, Tim Burr, the Director of Golf at Blackhawk Country Club approached Jerry Nowicki of the Blackhawk Senior Golf Association (SGA) for some help in raising money for this cause.

The senior organization embraced the project in a big way and decided to conduct a gate collection to get more publicity and wider community reach. In that first year, 24 volunteers from the SGA manned the gates on a very hot September day and raised $26,500.

The following year the Seniors broadened the project and wanted to expand the donations in support the local veteran’s charities in the Bay Area. They selected the Sentinels of Freedom based in San Ramon and Troops Direct located here in Danville. The Seniors also broadened the community support and solicited the Blackhawk Home Owners Association, who passed out flyers at the gates, and the Blackhawk Country Club to deliver donation cards to every home as well as pass them out in the dining rooms during the month of September in an all-out effort to get the word out. The second year $36,000 was collected, but an awareness was built in the Blackhawk community and this led to expanded donations.

Norm Prickett of the Senior organization took on the Chairmanship of Patriot’s day in 2015 and through his efforts our generous community responded in kind. We are proud to report to date our community has contributed almost $500,000.

These funds have helped the Sentinels of Freedom to assist a number of our most seriously wounded to live a more normal life by providing financial assistance through housing subsidies, educational subsidies and even help with finding them employment on the path to establishing a productive life free from dependency on the welfare system.

Troops Direct, another local charity, has provided back line support for our veterans engaged in combat operations and has shipped over 3 million pounds of supply items to date to support their daily needs with items in short supply on the battlefield.

Folds of Honor provides scholarship assistance to the families of our fallen and disabled veterans to supplement very minimal assistance programs provided by the government. To date the organization has helped many of the 1.4 million dependents of these brave patriots.

Patriots Day brings into focus the needs of our fallen and wounded veterans. It also demonstrates the power of volunteerism by many SGA members ranging in age from 50 to 97, and, most importantly, it brings out the generosity of a very giving community who answers in a big way every year on Patriots day. They are truly our Blackhawk Patriots.