By Gil Field / San Diego Veterans for Peace
Photo credit: San Diego Veterans for Peace
Veteran members, associate members, and friends and supporters of the San Diego Veterans For Peace, Chapter 91, are proud to announce that in November 2017 the 3200th sleeping bag set was given out to the homeless in downtown San Diego!
It’s through the generous ongoing financial contributions of friends and the general public that our Compassion Campaign is able to indefinitely continue this humane, lifesaving program.
In December 2010 the San Diego chapter of the national Veterans For Peace organization began the Compassion Campaign — an outreach effort to help displaced homeless veterans. Ignited by conversations with many homeless veterans on the street in downtown San Diego, the chapter membership determined the lives of homeless veterans and non-veterans downtown could improve significantly if given basic equipment — like a sleeping bag, as many weren’t sleeping well on the hard pavement with only a light blanket, their jacket, or nothing.
Putting ideas into action, SDVFP contacted local vendors about the purchase of 100 sleeping bag sets (sleeping bag and waterproof nylon stuff-sack) at wholesale prices. The humble goal of raising $3,000 was announced to members and supporters of the San Diego Veterans For Peace.
News of the outreach program began to spread, first to friends and families, and soon after to the general public — the response was a magnificent show of support enabling the program to buy and distribute sleeping bag sets well beyond its original goal.
The Compassion Campaign now continues year-round, with veteran and associate chapter members (some of whom are in their 80s) quietly delivering sleeping bag sets downtown late at night after the homeless have bedded down. This makes finding those truly in need of items easier!
Bag sets are now purchased directly from the Coleman Company in Colorado and are ordered in quantities of 50 or 100 as donations come in. The Coleman Company generously provides bag sets at tax-free wholesale prices and pays the shipping charges to San Diego. The cost of a set is $33. All administrative costs for this program are prepaid through the financial help of a generous donor.
Donations may be made online with a credit card or PayPal or checks made out to “SDVFP” can be mailed to:
SDVFP
13805 Royal Melbourne Square
San Diego, CA 92128
Each donor receives a card of thanks and a receipt for tax purposes; SDVFP is a 501-C-3 veteran’s educational organization.
For additional information, please contact Gil Field at GField@san.rr.com or 858-342-1964.
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This is both an amazing success story and a tragedy that there continues to be such a need in the City of San Diego. I remember going out with the original team of Vets for Peace in 2010, thinking this was a simple stop-gap measure while we did the work of getting people into real housing, never thinking that 7 years later the situation would be so much worse. Thank you Gil, Dave, Maurice (who has since moved to Berkeley) and all of the compassionate folks at Vets for Peace for persevering all this time when I know the emotional toll it takes to be doing this month after month, year after year.