Veteran's Village of healing

Here's a link to a film my brother and I made recently for Veteran's Village, a charity founded by Nadia McCaffrey, mother of fallen American soldier Patrick McCaffrey.

Roughly 30% of American soldiers are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD. Veteran's Village is a healing oasis to help vets reintegrate into society.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q7cTlRjGeU

If you look over on the side bar, you'll see this video up for about a week or so.

It's hard to believe this much time has come and gone since I was first made aware of Nadia.

One Mother's War
Robert Durell / LAT
Nadia McCaffrey, who now operates a nonprofit grief counseling program and has become a leader in the Northern California antiwar movement, has been a lifelong pacifist and opposed her son's enlistment from the beginning.
By Jeff Nachtigal, Special to the Times
January 30, 2005
TRACY, Calif. -- On the day her son Patrick McCaffrey died on a blacktop farm road in northern Iraq, Nadia McCaffrey's war began.

Her first act was to invite the press to the Sacramento Airport when her 34-year-old son's flag draped-coffin was brought home at the end of June 2004.
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/magazine/la-tm-guard30jan30-sb,1,3668041.story?coll=la-home-magazine&ctrack=1&cset=true

Since then my admiration for her has only grown deeper. While she gets attention for the Veteran's Village, what her life's mission is, is something she does very quietly. She is changing lives. You won't hear her tell you of this one or that one who had their lives transformed because she thought waving a flag and slapping a yellow magnet to the back of a car was just not enough to support the veterans enough and did something about it, but you will hear it in her voice how much she really cares about all of them. You can hear it in this video. A remarkable woman indeed~

Nadia has been helping a friend of mine I care deeply for. No one will know his story or how much she has helped him. No one will know most of the stories of the lives placed into Nadia's loving hands or how they have gone from seeing lives and things destroyed to feeling love's healing grace and watching things grow on organic farms. They will not know how many have cried on her shoulder or thrived on a hug from this woman who has adopted all of them as if they were her own children. What no one will hear is precisely the reason she does it. No one would have been there to help them the way she has. Her reward is beyond a price tag. You cannot put a price on a life that may have ended had Nadia not been there doing this work.

While her work is priceless to those she helps, it is very expensive to operate. Veteran's Village needs donations. She needs you to support her so she can support them. If you've finally come to the point in your life where you are aware that waving a flag seems insignificant and a yellow ribbon on an SUV seems really stupid, donate to the work Nadia is doing to really welcome them home and to a home where they can feel as if they are a part of this beautiful land. Help them find a peaceful place to recover from the wounds they carry in their soul.

We know that when the mind, body and spirit are addressed in unison, there are miracles happening everyday. Nadia understands this. Do you? Veteran's Village is non-political and all she cares about is them. It doesn't matter if they agree with what is being done in Iraq or not. All she cares about is that they were willing to serve their country and they are now in need for doing so.



I am proud to call Nadia my friend and I hope one day to be able to meet her, but I have a feeling we already met in another time and another place. Should we not meet on this earth face to face, we'll meet later soul to soul.