When a homeless Vietnam veteran died alone on the street just blocks away from a shelter, WIS, Gray’s NBC-CW affiliate in Columbia, S.C., started an initiative that provides tangible benefits to local veterans every day.
When a homeless Vietnam veteran died alone on the street just blocks away from a shelter, WIS, Gray’s NBC-CW affiliate in Columbia, S.C., started an initiative that provides tangible benefits to local veterans every day.
“It was a triggering mechanism,” said Lyle Schulze, WIS’ general manager, and the father of two veterans himself.
“It was a bright light that shined on a very dark moment and so we took it, that particular day, and said we have got 100,000 veterans living in the area, one of the highest populations in the country. We need to do something as a big voice in this community. And so that was really our engagement point.”
South Carolina has more U.S. service veterans than any other state. Their needs are many.
“We encounter veterans and military personnel every day,” said Schulze. “They are a part of the fabric of our state. To hear that we had a lot of hungry and neglected veteran personnel here that are just not living up to humane standards was really almost shocking to me. We were all stunned. We said we have to try to do something here as a station to try and shine a brighter light on this problem.”
The station kicked off United for Veterans three years ago. At first, the project was called Year of the Veteran.
And from the beginning, Judi Gatson, a WLS anchor-reporter, has led the efforts of the United for Veterans project. Gatson’s husband, Dwayne, spent 22 years in the military and retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel, so it seemed a natural for her.
“Judi comes from a military family,” said Schulze. “You can see in that video, I think you can see her emotion about she actually started crying talking about how she found out one of the veterans she knew from Fort Jackson was actually going hungry. So she is deeply involved and she is on base at Fort Jackson a lot. And she has asked to speak to the veterans. She is an encourager. We have had her embedded in training units at Fort Jackson so she is out there in the middle of them training on heavy artillery. We show what these young men and young women are going through and then the next day she will be over there speaking to a group of veterans to help support them.”
In the three years since it was launched, United for Veterans has supported veterans in a number of ways. The station raised money for the Disabled American Veterans to purchase a new van to drive veterans to medical appointments at the VA Hospital. The van was purchased from a local car dealer which helped the station get a good price.
“So we funded it,” said Schulze. “The van is used to transport critically ill veterans for treatment. We said look, we can do this pretty easily and, low and behold, we did. It’s making a big difference every day for veterans.
The station raised money to place 6,000 wreaths on the graves of fallen soldiers at Fort Jackson National Cemetery.
“It would put goose bumps on you to see the wreathes in line with all the veteran grave sites.”
WIS also partnered with the Palmetto Animal Assisted Life Services to follow the two-year training of a service dog, Winston. The station followed Winston’s progress through the program in segments on the morning news. It takes two years and approximately $25,000 to provide a service dog. After graduation, Winston was placed with a veteran who served in both the Marines and the Army, and now suffers from PTSD and Parkinson’s disease.
“We bought and sponsored a service dog and had him trained. He came in with the trainer several days a week and he became part of our station, but he was trained specifically for a veteran and we donated him to that veteran.”
Over the three years of United for Veterans existance, the station has fed thousands of veterans, raised and donating thousands of dollars for the local VA hospital and the United Way to help homeless veterans transition to shelters. Station staff volunteered to work on veteran’s homes. A local nonprofit, Home Works, provided the tools, supplies and expertise, but WIS supplied the manpower.
WIS’s work on behalf of veterans caught the attention of Columbia city officials, who asked the station to provide a video that was instrumental in Columbia being recognized as a Great American Defense Community. The United for Veterans campaign also earned the station an award from the South Carolina Broadcast Association as its service project of the year in 2019.
Major General (Ret.) William F. Grimsley, South Carolina’s first secretary of Veterans’ Affairs, called Schulze about the campaign.
“I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate what WIS is doing, United for Veterans,” said Grimsley. “This has been very helpful and inspiring. Your outreach has been tremendous, many, many thanks.”
When a station embarks on a major project like this, starting from the ground up, keeping its momentum going over three years can be daunting, said Schulze.
“I will admit it is a challenge to keep everybody moving in the right direction on this project because we are also a full-time news operation doing 52 hours of news a week with a staff of 64 in the newsroom. So we have to do stories on United For Veterans to keep it fresh and going, but yet still cover the news. But a lot of times, the news is veterans. But we are in no better place here than in Columbia, S.C., for military esprit de corps.”
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