How to volunteer at military and veterans hospitals

By Steve Gilliard

If you are interested in volunteering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center or National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, MD, the main hospitals for seriously wounded casualities returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, here is what their websites recommend:

Bethesda

Volunteer Program:

You CAN help! Serve your country through a gift of yourself - become a Red Cross volunteer at NNMC. A strong volunteer force is always needed to assist the Medical Center’s staff and mission. It is especially needed now that we are experiencing temporary staff shortages during the USNS Comfort’s deployment to serve in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Volunteers are an important support network day, night, and weekends for all areas - clinic, hospital, and administration.

Walter Reed

The Walter Reed site is down at the moment, but that could be due to interest in the Washington Post story.

The Veterans Administration

The Veterans Administration has a nationwide network of hospitals and centers and it would be best to contact your local hospital and find out what their policies on volunteers are.

Disabled American Veterans

DAV provides a great deal of emotional and actual support for disabled vets in and out of the VA system. You can volunteer with them or contribute cash. I can attest to the fact that DAV materials actually get to the hospitals and do provide services.

Volunteering with the sick is not an easy task. Donating cash or services is perfectly fine.

One other thing: if you have friends or relatives with service members in Kosovo/Bosnia, Afghanistan or Iraq, you can send them care packages directly. The larger packages will be divided among the unit members. And the show of concern will be appreciated by both family members and those serving overseas.

Posted July 20, 2003 08:25 AM