ARM Industry Helps Veteran Hear Again

Vietnam Veteran Kenon Jenkins served in the U.S. Navy in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. He saw action aboard the USS Douglas H. Fox destroyer and received a National Defense Service Medal and a Vietnam Service Medal with a Bronze Star.

During his naval service and for years thereafter as an employee of the U.S. Postal Service, Jenkins worked in close proximity to machinery that, over time, led to significant loss of hearing.

Although the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) had been involved in Mr. Jenkins’s case, it was ultimately determined that the particulars of his financial situation plus various guidelines would not enable the VA to pay for the type of hearing aid that he and Mrs. Jenkins knew would give him back most of his hearing. Like many other military families, the Jenkins’ were also constrained by their living expenses and ongoing debt management issues. After resigning himself to never again being able to hear normal everyday sounds, he found the ARMing Heroes website.

When he contacted ARMing Heroes, the organization had recently started its Second Annual Veterans Day Charity Fundraising Drive (“the Drive”). As a result of the drive, the credit and collection industry raised more than $27,000 in only a ten-week period starting on September 11, 2011 and concluding on Veterans Day, November 11, 2011. Donations from the drive more than doubled the previous year’s total, thanks to these donors: http://www.armingheroes.org/arming-heroes/donors.

The single largest donor in 2011 by far was Southwest Credit, which instituted an Employee Contribution Program (ECP). The Southwest Credit ECP empowers workers to have the company make donations, through payroll deductions, to ARMing Heroes to help America’s veterans. Employees can choose to do this either on a one-time basis or over the course of an entire year. ARMing Heroes estimates that, if only half of its other corporate donors would implement an ECP, the organization could easily raise $400,000 or more this year. ARMing Heroes will hold a teleseminar on June 14, 2012 at 11:30AM (EST) to provide more information on how to set up an ECP. Click here to sign up for the teleseminar.

The ARMing Heroes Board of Trustees voted in December to award a grant to Mr. Jenkins to help pay for the hearing aid. After many years of waiting, Kenon Jenkins got his hearing aid just last month. Mrs. Jenkins recently wrote ARMing Heroes to say thanks:

“This morning my husband…received his hearing aid. We were on our way home from the doctor’s office and we got to a light and had to turn right. My husband heard a noise. He said, ‘What is that? I think something is wrong with the car.’ It was the turn signal. He had forgotten the sound of a turn signal. That is when I realized how much he has been missing all of these years. Thank you so much for helping my husband hear again.”

Kenon and Margaret Jenkins with their son, Kenon, Jr.

ARMing Heroes was founded and began operating in March 2009. The organization’s mission is to serve the needs of U.S. military veterans, including their spouse and children. ARMing Heroes fills a charitable niche by linking people identified with employment, credit, and financial counseling needs with the accounts receivable management industry, an industry uniquely poised to help in these areas. Persons interested in volunteering their time and others interested in applying for benefits or pledging other forms of support are encouraged to contact the organization at www.armingheroes.org.

What Can I Do Right Now to Help?

• Join our seminar on June 14, 2012 to see how you can help us get to $400K in donations this year. Click here to sign up: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/621497066
• Visit www.armingheroes.org and join our One for a Warrior Program, sign up to help in other ways, or donate now.
• Friend us and post this article to your page on Facebook.
• Tweet about this article on Twitter.
• Join our group on LinkedIn, the ARMing Heroes Veterans Charity Supporter / Assistance Center.
• Comment on this article online and ask us to contact you.
• Forward this article via email to your key contacts.
• Print this article and fax it to your local congressional office and ask them to post our website on theirs as a resource for vets.