Our speaker today is Steve Kelley with Friends of Veterans (FoV)
Today, he volunteers for Friends of Veterans and also serves on Osher at Dartmouth’s finance committee. Steve is a native of Boston and lives in Quechee.
Friends of Veterans serves both New Hampshire and Vermont. Nationwide, veterans comprise about 6% of the US population. With New Hampshire and Vermont’s combined population of around two million, that means there are around 120,000 US veterans living in our twin states. Steve hopes we can all agree that “men and women who have sacrificed for us deserve our help in return.”
FoV is a small, not-for-profit corporation founded roughly 40 years ago to assist homeless veterans. Its office in WRJ serves both NH and VT with fewer than 15 unpaid volunteers, some of whom are vets.
The organization’s revenue comes mainly from a large golf tournament, donations, and grants. The tournament has been traditionally played at Baker Hill in Sutton, NH (Dean Cashman has played there often); they charge $1200/foursome and fill up. Unfortunately, their preferred date for 2026 is unavailable; they may have to find another venue and date. The golf event covers all the organization’s administrative events; every other dollar goes to help “qualified” veterans.
ASK: Please tell every veteran you know that Friends of Veterans stands ready to help.
For the past six consecutive years, FoV has provided more than $100,000/year in service; over $1 million over 40 years. They recently received a substantial donation from a “bluebird,” Steve said.
FoV’s money is flexible. Major categories of assistance are back rent, security deposits, mortgage payments, fuel assistance, utilities, and car and home repairs. They have experienced increasing requests recently as other agencies have lost funding. Also, vets with PTSD can apply for a service animal and may request assistance for its annual care and feeding.
FoV’s costs: office rent, IT support (System Plus), and office supplies. Reach them at: Fovvtnh.org; 802-296-8368; assistance@fovvtnh.org.
FoV distributes about $120,000 in grants each year.
What is a “Qualified Veteran”
- Served at least six months of active duty
- Discharge must be honorable, under honorable, or generally under honorable conditions. FoV practices some flexibility, especially for Vietnam vets who got tossed for a single marijuana cigarette.
- Reasonable expectation of sustainability of the vet’s situation after our help; we like to help with an unforeseen “bump in the road”
- Vet has “skin in the game”
- May require coordination with other agencies
- We encourage vets to connect with a social worker for financial counseling, etc.
- We encourage vet to use 211 for heating assistance in either NH and VT before using our funds.
Service Dog Assistance
- High correlation with homelessness and PTSD
- Also, high correlation between symptom improvement and having a service dog
- It costs $50,000 to train one dog and can take more than 2 years from application to receipt of service dog.
- We work with both Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-accredited and non-ADA-accredited service dog organizations
- To receive our support, vet must have PTSD diagnosis and a doc’s written letter re: needing a dog
- We help pay veterinarian bills, dog fences, training costs, balance harnesses (to help vet get back on his/her feet).
Steve asked two things of Lebanon Rotarians:
- Talk to vets you know and tell them that FoV is an organization in WRJ that helps vets financially. It’s a challenge for us to get out the word. If 6% of 2 million are vets = 120,000; we help maybe 120/year. I’m skeptical that only 1/10 of 1% of known vets need or help.
- We need volunteers; we are well below what we need. We have money to spend but have challenges getting the cases ready to go.
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