The Kiwanis Club Of DC & The Yellow Ribbon Fund: A Partnership Of Compassion & Gratitude
by Mark Zaidan

The Yellow Ribbon Fund (YRF) was founded by a group of concerned local businessmen to create a more effective transition back to civilian life for returning service men and women. They do so by assisting injured service members and their families while they recuperate at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Kiwanis Club of Washington, DC, hosted a few of these service members along with Bob Talbot, Vice President of YRF, to learn more about this local, grass roots organization. (Right, the $350,000 patio YRF donated to Malogne House at Walter Reed was unveiled on October 14, 2007. The event was headlined by Bob Schieffer of CBS News.)

Our club put together a YRF Committee to exchange ideas of how our club could work with this wonderful organization and a blue print emerged. Our work was governed by the knowledge that YRF mostly needs help in providing rental cars, taxi vouchers, hotel and apartment rooms to the visiting family members of injured service members, job mentoring and internship opportunities and tickets to sports events, concerts and other entertainment venues. Because of their injuries, our brave men and women are often at Walter Reed for several months.

On August 15th, Bob Talbot and Mark Robbins, the new Executive Director of YRF, outlined key facets in which Kiwanis can and will effectively work with YRF. The following is a synopsis:

Professional mentoring by the Kiwanis Club of DC
Our club will compose a group of about 10 willing Kiwanians as a start. Ideally, a variety of professions will be represented (ie. Law, Accounting, Public Relations, Finance, IT, Federal Sales, etc). These Kiwanians will provide professional mentoring/career advice to interested service members.

Job placement opportunities. This is the second step of professional mentoring.
Initially on a local level and eventually on a national level, Kiwanians will participate in "job shadowing". "Job shadowing" involves Kiwanians taking along interested service members to work for the day to give them an idea of what to their profession entails.

Walter Reed Army Hospital visits by Kiwanians
Due to ever-tightening security precautions, it has become increasingly difficult for individual visitors to go to Walter Reed. These service members need more individual visitors when they return to their hometowns. This need could be filled by Kiwanis chapters throughout the country.

As for here in Washington, DC, YRF suggest that our club sponsors one of their "Meet & Greet" sessions at the Malogne House, a hotel-of-sorts for soldiers on the Walter Reed campus. These events take place on the first Thursday of every month from 6-8pm. Sponsoring one of these events entails something as simple as setting up an ice-cream and cake/cookies stand or a pizza stand or even barbecue burgers and hot dogs using the two gas grills located at the courtyard of the Malone House. At these events, we will place a nice DC Kiwanis Club banner and we Kiwanians will work our magic: we will mingle with the service members and get to know them so that we can help them. (Left, Staff Sergeant John Borders and his wife Mollie and children Brittany and Xander, were given a car by YRF. They now have the means to get to doctors appointments and go to school.)

Ticket management to collect and disburse donated tickets.
Through the YRF committee, we will distribute donations from Kiwanians of sports and entertainment tickets. Perhaps your law firm has season tickets for the Wizards or you have tickets to a Redskins game you cannot attend. Email Mark Zaidan at mark@choicefinance.net and we'll forward them to YRF. The YRF needs tickets for Hockey, Football (college and professional), Basketball (college and professional), golf tournaments, golf outings (although injured, these service members do play golf as shown in a 2-page photo spread in this month's Washingtonian magazine) and concerts. (Pictured above YRF volunteers surround an injured service member at the First Annual YRF Golf Classic.)

Host service members at our University Club luncheons once a month
One or two service members will attend our meetings every month. They will be picked up from Walter Reed by Kiwanians and driven to the University Club for lunch. They will be introduced at the meetings and briefly state where they're from, what YRF has done for them and what are there plans once they return home (or, are they staying in the DC area). This provides an opening for Kiwanians to bond with these service members.

Cash donations are key
Cash donations to YRF, a 501c3 organization, are always helpful and effective. For example, cash donations totaling $350,000 resulted in the construction of the 10,000 square foot courtyard outside of the Malone House. Prior to this, the courtyard was an uneven dirt field with patches of grass and a few benches. Today, it is a stunning testament of the appreciation that private citizens and organizations have for our returning veterans. Cash donations will continue to be applied towards car rentals for visiting family members, short-term furnished apartment rentals and hotel stays for visiting family members, plane tickets for soldiers, taxi vouchers, etc.

Grow Kiwanis membership
Bob Talbot of YRF has agreed to join our club. He will be a wonderful addition and we are lucky to have him. An application will be forwarded to him. As we continue to work with these service members, we are promoting the Kiwanis brand in a very positive way. Some of these service members will realize this and may choose to join our particular club or a club in their hometown.

As the oldest Kiwanis chapter in our nation's capital, we can play a leadership role in reaching out to other Kiwanis chapters throughout the country. In doing so, we will assist in the transition to civilian life of service members when they return to their hometown
Eventually, YRF wants to work with Kiwanis chapters throughout the country to create a network of YRF Ambassadors who will reach out on an individual basis to service members returning to their hometown. There is a growing email list serve of 400 people who have signed up as YRF Ambassadors and Kiwanians can sign up as well. When a service member is discharged from Walter Reed, for example, YRF Ambassadors get an email or phone call from YRF informing them of returning veterans and request that they make contact, welcome them back and see if they need anything. Many times, these soldiers just need a ride for a doctor's appointment and the YRF Ambassador provides that service (drivers are in great demand throughout the country until these service members get back on their feet). This could be a very effective effort on a nation-wide scale when Kiwanis chapters throughout the country see what we're doing and adopt our blue print. It only takes one Kiwanian per club to be a YRF Ambassador (of course, the more the merrier).

To make suggestions or for more information on Kiwanis involvement with the Yellow Ribbon Fund, please contact: Mark Zaidan at mark@choicefinance.net or 301-881-8900 x145.