October 18, 2008
Christian Charity:
AOH Generosity Helps Support Our Veterans

On Wednesday October 15th I (Seamus Boyle) went to Washington DC and met with JJ Kelly, our Veterans Affairs Chairman, and we visited the Headquarters for the Archdiocese for The Military Services. We got a tour of their building by Bill Kirst who is the Financial Officer for the Archdiocese. JJ and I presented them with a check which was approved at our convention and he thanked the AOH for their concern and generosity.

We then went up to Walter Reed Hospital and got a grand tour of the entire hospital including the new wing for the rehabilitation of the amputee's. It is a very sobering sight to see these young men and women with terrible injuries yet they always have a smile on their faces. The new wing is a state of the art facility which is unequaled in the world. The newest and the best equipment, the best trained personnel and most competitive training in the country. We did tour the training facility as well and met a great priest who is an AOH member and chaplain of the AOH and the Hospital as well, who is in there as a patient. Fr Kenny needs our prayers for his recovery from serious surgery and we also told the other patients there that we would keep them in our prayers. We then presented a check to Jim Mayer who is the director of Peer Mentoring & Training for the wounded Warriors Project. Jim was very interested to hear many of the other things that the AOH was doing in other parts of the country. He thanked the members of the Hibernians for their work on behalf of the Veterans and for their generosity.