The past three years we’ve worked to raise a little cash (just over $2,000*) and support for the amazing Maine Veterans Project. While we have enjoyed being a small part of helping Maine veterans, we would be absolutely remiss if a veterans project opened up in our town and we didn’t completely throw our support behind them.
You’ve probably already seen us post about Veteran Sanctuary Foundation. VSF is an off-the-grid sanctuary campground where veterans can decompress and work on their physical and mental needs while they work on the transition from military to civilian life – right here in Linneus. Anyone who has ever served knows full well how difficult it is in the civilian world after separation. That is not something the military trains you to do – at least they didn’t 30 years ago, but judging from the fact this is still a desperately needed service, they apparently still don’t.
VSF is currently working on constructing facilities and such for the Veterans staying at the Sanctuary. There will also be cabins equipped for veterans with disabilities and their families to come experience all the same amenities. There will be recreational activities on the land such as fishing, camping, and archery. However there will be no firearms or firearm hunting on the land out of respect to our veterans with PTSD and other adversaries. SAASMaine will be a part of the off-sanctuary recreation for these veterans, and this will be prompting a slight change to our Airsoft for Veterans day. Please keep an eye out for a future blog post outlining those changes.
In that vein, we will be continuing to present our Op: Damage Control “chillsim” series, but will instead be raising money and awareness for and of VSF. As a reminder, we’ve already announced the date for OP: Damage Control IV: October 12 – 13, 2024.
No, we haven’t decided that #22aday isn’t an issue, absolutely it is! Have you ever heard the old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? By getting these recently-separated veterans somewhere quiet, surrounded by other veterans, and re-introducing them to civilian life, we absolutely feel that this will go a long way towards preventing veteran suicides. Being actively involved in bringing recreation to these veterans to help them forget about the world for awhile gives us a great deal of joyjoy to our hearts and souls… not all my shipmates were able to make the transition, and we weren’t even in a warzone.
Please give VSF a Like and a Follow and help us help them.
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- Instagram: @bugoutVSF
- Facebook: @bugoutVSF
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* Here’s a screenshot of our MVP donations, so yes, we’ve helped do some good for them. Now, we’ll do even better for VSF.
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