Page 3 - Desert Oracle October 2018

Letter from our Executive Director:

Well it has been awhile since I put pencil to keyboard to place an article in the Desert
Oracle but our new editor has put in quite a bit of work and encouraged me to add to
his first edition. I am very enthused about his format. I will be curious about your
thoughts on Mr. Gehrke’s work.

On a sad note, one of our Board Members Mr. Edward Ramirez passed recently and
while he was only on the Board for a year, he did stand out. Ed was a Vietnam Veteran
who was injured in country over 50 years ago. Earlier on he had a wheelchair business
in California and bounced around Arizona over the last couple of decades. He and his
wife of 25 years Carol, ended up settling in Black Canyon City; about 40 miles North of
Phoenix.

Our end of year should be a great time of relief but we have the Veteran’s booth to
man each weekend in October from 2 pm to10 pm. If you’re available to help out by
working a 4 hour or 8 hour shift; please call the office.

The Chapter had our busiest year yet with over 1650 pieces of durable medical
equipment handed out. This does not include medical supplies or a van given out to
one of our members. We work with many Veteran groups and have been given the
opportunity to hand out gift cards to our clinics and meals to our low income Veterans

in housing units. Our assistance with the female booth at Phoenix StandDown has
brought us many more contacts and groups to help us “find” what our community
needs.

All three hospitals have full clinics both with space and staff. Parking will be our last
battle in Phoenix, as it has grown into the second largest VA in the country. A big
thank you to our NSO’s and staff because without them this would never have
happened. We appreciate their efforts.

I’d like to say good bye to Joseph Fox. His retirement is a loss, though well-deserved,
for both he and the amazing lady who not only married him but put up with all PVA
threw at her over the years. Good bye and thank you, Hilda Fox.

Our next big venture will be the renovation of our building or funding a new source of
income. We will be deciding on which side of our building will be handling the large
amount of medical equipment that we acquire almost every day.

That is all for now, talk to you soon on our next edition of The Desert Oracle.