Charter For Veterans site

[Kahrcw9]

I was reading O'Dell's thread about donating the money he received from this site to some charities.. I realized that this site has quite a few Veterans and people interested in Veterans. I am from a non military family, but I worked as an operational tester for the Marines for a couple years. I met some incredible people that give up a lot in their personal lives to serve this country. I also met some pretty incredible contractors that either used to be Marines or believe in what they are doing. One of these former Marines turned contractor started an organization called Charter for Veterans. This guy puts an incredible amount of time and personal money into this organization. They survive off donations and help from others. Right now they basically work with disabled veterans from Walter Reed and take them out on chartered boat rides in the Chesapeake Bay. The do various things from fishing, crabbing, small radio controlled boat racing, to tubing and general fun water things.

The website is http://charterforveterans.org/

Please check out the website or join them on Facebook and help support the mission to provide some fun to theses people that have given a lot to allow us to live our lives safely.

I am working with a friend who does web design and she is going to donate her time to help update the site in the near future so It won't look so cheesy..

Thank you for looking and I hope this doesn't break any rules on KahrTalk. I just thought some of you would enjoy seeing one of the neat things that people are doing for Veterans.

[Kahrcw9]

Nobody had any comments about this? Interesting.. Thought you guys would like to see someone doing something for the wounded Vets..

[REACT]

I'll bite.

As a vet (although not confirmed by the VA yet - stupid backlog), I appreciate all of the new charities that have popped up in the last ten years since we we were attacked and we've been at war, however, I also see that all of these charities are actually diluting the limited funds that people are willing to donate. All of these charities have to have some sort of operating costs, so a large bulk of the nation's overall donations go to the people running the charity and not to the intended recipient.

Here's one anecdotal example. I know it's not fair, but it supports my argument.

Boot Campaign – A Business That Sells Combat Boots (http://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2011/01/31/boot-campaign-a-business-that-sells-combat-boots/)

To be fair, here's a list of charities listed with the IRS with the word "veteran" somewhere in their name (http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/search.do?resultsPerPage=500&nameSearchTypeStarts=false&names=veteran&nameSearchTypeAll=false&city=&state=All...&country=USA&deductibility=all&sortColumn=name&indexOfFirstRow=0&isDescending=false&dispatchMethod=search). Note that I sorted the list to show 500 charities per page and the first page ends with the "Disabled Veterans Scuba Project."

With that said, I hope that the Marine that you mentioned keeps up the good work for years to come and doesn't quit after the wave of veteran support eventually wanes.

[bigmacque]

Any body read the recent news on the "NavyVeterans" asssociation, being operated out of an apartment building in Tampa?

The guy, unfortunately, was a total crook, taking a lot of money -- in the hundreds of millions -- from people to support a bunko charity. Situations like that tend to make people a little more careful and judicious with their money these days.

[REACT]

http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/united-states-navy-veterans-association-in-washington-dc-1708

http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2010/reports/navy-veterans-association/

Edit: it looks like there are/were two fraudulent US Navy Veterans Associations. Even better.

[Kahrcw9]

Well not that it would do any good, but you have my word this guy isn't a fraud.. *L*.. He works as a contractor out of Quantico and actually does have an office for this I believe, but I am sure its not much. He spends a lot of his own money to keep it going..

Anyway if you check out the site and think you could help or donate in anyway I am sure that he would appreciate it..

By the way.. I think you should be locked up for a long time for these con schemes especially when it has to do with a disaster relief or a veteran or anything like that.. it should put you in a whole other category of criminal..