...It's not about glory; it's about Their Story.
The prototype American VeteranShield product design was developed only after taking into account a number of practical and ethical considerations: Our U.S. design team works continuously to improve and upgrade the American VeteranShield, in order to ensure that we always provide the best product possible to efficiently support the long-term mission and goals of the VeteranShield Project.
back to top
The POD Design System is able to offer truly exciting new possibilites for families, friends and communities to keep, protect, and publicly share their collective memories together, while also providing new opportunities to join together in both online and real-world celebrations and outdoor observances.
This unique combination of features and benefits has been fully realized in the embodiment of the American VeteranShield.
back to top
1. To publicly celebrate and honor the life of military Veterans, living or deceased.
2. To provide a safe and secure repository for a Veteran’s Photojournal, and Spouse's/Parent's/Children's Photojournals.
3. To raise public awareness and contributions, so as to create new tools and real opportunities for our homecoming and disabled Veterans -- and their heroic families -- to help them deal with (and heal from) the war experience; thus providing the means for them to function, thrive and prosper together in the civilian world.
Through the use of a PC and free, easy-to-use software and templates, the story of a Veteran’s life and service can be quickly and brilliantly told and displayed in the form of a customized and illuminated outdoor digital collage.
Larger Individual and Corporate donations are now being solicited to provide VeteranShields for all honorable Veterans (and their families) who are experiencing financial hardship. Please visit our Corporate Sponsorship page if your company or organization would like to contribute funds to sponsor Veteranshilds for a specific group or category of Veterans.
Low-income honorable veterans (or their families) are encouraged to make a confidential application for a sponsored VeteranShield. Please contact our office at Applications@veteranshield.org. to apply for a confidential Sponsorship Application.
back to top
1. To provide an online display (Hall of Honor) of every VeteranShield created, along with a personal library of supporting military-related photographs and documents, searchable by the Veteran’s name and hometown.
2. To provide a sense of national community among the VeteranShield.org membership.
3. To raise contributions for the aid of disabled Veterans and their families.
Every VeteranShield produced will be available for viewing on the VeteranShield.org website, along with biographical information on the honored Veteran.
Each contributor who commissions a VeteranShield will also receive a free 1-year membership in the VeteranShield organization. Subsequent yearly memberships will cost only $12.00 for all VeteranShield patrons; membership fees will be kept low to encourage long-term participation. Members will receive a quarterly magazine, among many other benefits.
back to top
The below two paragraphs have been copied directly from our organization’s certified Articles of Incorporation, on file with the California Secretary of State:
This corporation is a nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation and is not organized for the private gain of any person. It is organized under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for public and charitable purposes.
The specific purpose of this corporation is to honor and recognize the lives and service of all U.S. Veterans by allowing members to participate in the personal preservation and creative outdoor display of the individual photographs, collages, personal journals, memorabilia, etc., of related or personally known military Veterans or comrades in arms, both in their local communities and online, and to provide assistance to disabled Veterans and their families in their efforts to successfully reintegrate into civilian life.
While the above statements provide the “bare bones” goals, concepts and values underpinning our 501(c)(4) organization -- to enhance public awareness, interest, and appreciation of the sacrifices of our country's Veterans -- please continue to explore our entire web site to learn exactly how our programs hope to accomplish and expand upon our stated goals, by working exclusively from the "bottom up" to build out and expand our grassroots programs.
Why are we incorporated as a public nonprofit? Because of our founder's belief that the photographs and memorabilia of all our cherished U.S. Veterans are a sacred trust for all American families; therefore, it just wouldn't be right for any individual or corporation to enrich themselves by building up a for-profit company that would treat those priceless digital images as mere commercial "inventory", to be sold off at a later date to the highest bidder. That's why we've taken the steps necessary to ensure that the Veteranshield organization and the VeteranShield Project will remain in the public trust forever; lock, stock and barrel.
VeteranShield.org is not a "tin cup" charity. It's a highly unique nonprofit economic initiative, focused on providing specialized end-user products and services which have been expressly designed to create awareness within U.S. communities of the service, sacrifice, and contribution of local American Veterans and their families, and to publicly celebrate their lives. By doing so, we hope to create a sustainable flow of money from the private sector to build and support its in-house Veteran assistance programs, with any remaining funds donated directly to qualified charities operating established Veteran and family assistance programs.
We believe that the VeteranShield Project -- and our unique status as an entrepreneurial, bottom-up, problem-solving nonprofit -- will finally provide a fresh and realistic solution to the almost total lack of public recognition of our Veterans now occuring in America's neighborhoods over the traditional Memorial and Veterans Day holidays. This has been a long-standing and much-examined problem within U.S. society; many well-meaning, standard nonprofit charities (and even a well-intentioned White House commission) have, unfortunately, been utterly unable to resolve this vexing problem, even after spending millions in charitable contributions and tax dollars.
back to top
Through the Veterans on Parade Program, our organization will be able to offer the families of Veterans the opportunity to have their VeteranShields on almost 24-hour public display, and to allow members of the public to learn more about the individual Veterans who have served, and are now serving, our country.
It is also our hope that the sight of illuminated VeteranShields moving down the road at night will serve as a daily inspiration in communities everywhere, and remind Americans that the service and sacrifices of this nation’s Veterans are not forgotten.
back to top
“The only guide to man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.”
The VeteranShield Ranks of Honor Program will be unique in that it will allow non-Veterans - such as Veteran family members and friends - to publicly parade on behalf of, and in honor of, both living and deceased Veterans: The sight of 20 (or 200, or 2000) lighted VeteranShields, gently swaying in the darkness while being carried at dusk by their proud family members, friends, or former comrades-in-arms, would be a stirring sight in and by itself, or in combination with any Veteran’s Day hometown parade or marathon walk.
back to top
The Flanders poppy has been a part of Memorial or Remembrance Day ritual since the early 1920s, and remains a strong tradition throughout the member countries of the old British Commonwealth (i.e., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc.).
During the First World War, the red poppies were seen to be among the first living plants that sprouted from the devastation of the battlefields of northern
An American, Moina Michael, read McCrae's poem and was so moved by it that she wrote a reply and decided to wear a red poppy as a way of keeping faith, as McCrae urged in his poem. Michael worked for the American YMCA and at a meeting of YMCA secretaries from other countries, held in November 1918, she discussed the poem and her poppies. Madame Guerin, the French YMCA secretary, was inspired by Moina Michael’s idea, and she approached organizations throughout the allied nations to sell poppies to raise money for widows, orphans and needy Veterans and their families, and the tradition of buying and wearing a commemorative poppy on Memorial Day was begun.
In 1924 the VFW (and, shortly thereafter, the American Legion Auxillary) began to offer American-made artificial poppies for distribution on Memorial Day throughout the U.S., to raise contributions in the cause of Veteran's welfare, or
Unfortunately, the Poppy tradition has waned in the
However, during the
The VeteranShield Remembrance Poppy Wreath Program (VRPWP) is a fund-raising program that is built upon rebuilding and honoring both of the above traditions of remembrance. Through the application of modern technology, that tradition has been updated to provide a method for an online community of friends and supporters to annually honor and connect with Veterans and their families through the gifting of personalized Remembrance Poppies. The VRPW Program consists of the following elements:
§ An online Registration Portal – This will provide an easy method of ordering and personalizing Remembrance Poppies on the VeteranShield.org website.
§ Personalized Remembrance Poppies – Poppies shall be sold in sets of two, and each set will come complete with individual red, white, or blue ribbons which shall be personalized as follows:
i. Veteran Poppy: To be personalized with the Current Year, Name and Hometown of Patron, and Message of Remembrance. This poppy shall be sent to the individual who has possession of the VeteranShield, for attachment to the VeteranShield Wreath Ring.
ii. Patron Poppy: To be personalized with the Current Year and the Name and Hometown of Veteran. This poppy shall be sent directly to the Patron, for wearing as a lapel decoration on Veteran’s Day.
§ VeteranShield Wreath Ring – This shall be attached to the circumference of the VeteranShield. It will provide an easy and permanent attachment point for Veteran Poppies, and will act as the base upon which to create a wreath of personalized Remembrance Poppies surrounding a VeteranShield.
© 2009-2015 VETERANSHIELD. All Rights Reserved.
Home | About Us | Blog | Privacy Policy | Legal | Contact Us
Not an official government website.te.