Heartbeat – Serving Wounded Warriors
Oct 31, 2013, 1:59 PM | Updated: Nov 8, 2013, 12:01 pm
Heartbeat – Serving Wounded Warriors provides emergency assistance, therapeutic services, support groups, and morale-building programs for wounded service members and their families in Washington state. Their focus is solely on those military service members who are wounded or injured.
The events of September 11, 2001, deeply affected many people in our nation. Janice Buckley was one of them. She felt the call to support our nation’s military families but wasn’t sure what to do. So she baked brownies for the National Guard.
This began a long journey of volunteer work for the United Service Organizations. From there she met many military families and learned different ways to help. At one point, Janice gathered gift certificates around Washington and gave them to soldiers arriving home from Iraq.
Determined to do more for our nation’s most important resource, Janice founded Operation Homefront Washington (OHWA) in 2004. It became a chapter of the national Operation Homefront organization. By 2008, OHWA had served more than 29,000 families and had grown to more than 250 volunteers.
Janice realized that the organization could do more for wounded service members if the focus was fully on them. In 2009, OHWA left the national organization and changed the OHWA name to Heartbeat – Serving Wounded Warriors. This change reflects its focused mission on wounded warriors and their families.
Heartbeat’s programs and services for wounded warriors and their families are continually growing. They offer support for many types of needs, including: emergency, physical, emotional and daily living.
Heartbeat believes it’s critical to step up and serve those who give endlessly for our freedom and way of life. When brave warriors return home with physical and psychological injuries, everything changes.
The goal of Heartbeat – Serving Wounded Warriors is to help our brave service members gain control over their health challenges and lead productive lives.
Click here for more information on Heartbeat – Serving Wounded Warriors.
