UAW partners with VFW
Union to fund, help build house for veterans and their families
The UAW has always supported veterans and their families, but this year marks a historic partnership for the union and the VFW National Home for Children.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars has provided short- and long-term housing for children and families of veterans since 1925. The UAW will be the first organization other than the VFW to finance and help build a new home at the Eaton Rapids, Mich., campus.
There hasn’t been a home built there since 1966, so this $300,000 duplex will be a welcome addition. It will be built entirely with union labor and funded by donations from UAW members across the country. Thus far, $72,000 has been raised.
“The VFW’s mission of serving veterans and their families is right in line with our own mission, and we know our members will donate generously to this great cause,” said UAW Vice President Cal Rapson, who directs the union’s Veterans Department.
UAW Local 652’s Bob VanAntwerp appreciates the fact that his volunteer work at the VFW National Home for Children is a direct way to help those who served our country.
“I get a lot of satisfaction out of this kind of thing,” said VanAntwerp, a veteran who is on layoff as an engineering technician at General Motors’ Lansing, Mich., assembly plant.
Chris Laverty, Local 652’s training and technology representative who helped build the relationship between the two organizations, said the UAW wanted to help veterans on a national level. Patrice Green, executive director of the National Home, said its board was impressed by the UAW’s commitment to veterans.
The home presently operates 36 single-family homes on its sprawling campus. It has two programs: a residential program for children of veterans who do not have parents or whose parents cannot care for them; and a single-parent family program to help veterans’ family members become self-sufficient within three years. It also will serve families of current service members in need.
Marine Staff Sgt. Matthew Lightner set out for the heart of Iraqi resistance in the Sunni Triangle in early February, leaving his wife, 6-year-old stepdaughter and 11-month-old daughter back in Camp Lejeune, N.C. He was one of 10 siblings raised at the VFW home.
Lightner is grateful it was there for him when he and his brothers and sisters had nowhere else to turn. He also appreciates the UAW support because some of today’s service members might not be prepared if the worst should strike their families.
“It’s peace of mind,” he said.
If you would like to make a contribution, checks can be made out to VFW National Home for Children/UAW 05 and sent to UAW Veterans Dept., c/o Bill Peterson, 8000 E. Jefferson Ave., Detroit, MI 48214.
