Wounded Soilders Automovation

[WestTexasS2K]

I think this is a good opportunity to bring to peoples attention since we are approaching Memorial Day Weekend. There is a program at Brooks Medical Center in San Antonio Tx that has developed a unique program to help rehab severly injured soilders.

The program is called Automotivation. It uses car restoration projects that help rehab wounded solders. Most of the solders are amputee or partially paralized to severly burned and various other injuries. The project runs strictly on donations. So I am going to put a challenge out to the 700 members of this site. We need to do something as a group to help out our young men and women successfully complete rehab. Some continue on in the automotive fields others pick up the the car hobby for pure fun.

They are in need of tools and tool boxes, welders, sanding supplies and various other items. The list of items canb e found on the website http://www.operationcomfort.org/html/automotivation_program_website.htm

A few years ago we did an Overhauling project for a young man who was terminally ill with cancer. We made a few calls to shops and stores we purchase from on regular basis other buddies in the car hobby or car business. Paint and Body shops, Paint supply stores, body shops, tools supply guys whatever you can think off. We raised 16k dollars worth of materials and donated items in 1 weeks time. I would say about 8 hours worth of phone time between 2 guys accomplished this.

With this in mind what could 700 of us do for these guys. If you know someone that has a paint supply store see if they will donate a DA sander or a pnuematic long board or sand paper or ScotchBrite pads. Try to get items that can be shipped fairly easily. If you dont know a sole but want to help we can set up a fund that we can collect donations and give it to them in a group donation for the foundation to buy what they need or we can purchase larger items here and Tx and I will drive it to San Antonio. Go to Sears and buy a complete socket set or a set of ratchet wrenches. They need rolling toolboxes. that lock.

I think this is a project that as a group we can make a huge impact on some well deserving young men and women that bravely fight for our country.

I made a few calls today and picked up 2 DA sanders. A small angle grinder with 4 boxes of grinding disk. I literally spent 10 min. to accomplish this.

Jay Nordstrom is very involved with this project and we took up a donation at Run N Gun cermony last year and raised over 1k bucks. I would love to give to him a big check and mountain load of tools and supplies on behalf of the 7s community. I bet the Cobra crowd isnt going to do this.

What do yall think? Feedback and ideas wanted and welcome.

[slngsht]

You have PM.

[solder_guy]

Great Idea!

Rob

[11Budlite]

Excellent!! Let me see what I can find...

Bruce :7drive:

[WestTexasS2K]

Thank you very much for the folks that have responded. It is a good start. Hope others will jump on the bandwagon. If half the folks just gave 10 bucks or 2 gallons of gas we could raise enough money to take care of alot of their needs.

[scannon]

Is there an address or a paypal account we can send cash donations to?

Skip

[slngsht]

Loren is setting it up :thumbs:

[locostv8]

Kudos to Loren and all the others involved. These guys realy need a kick start to get back to life.

I am searching for words to not make this sound like sour grapes but please remember the other vets whose problems are not as obvious. I am starting a campain with my Congressman, he dosn't know it yet since I'm out of state. 100% service connected disabled vets are supposed to have prefference at VAMCs who are responsible for all thier medical requirements and are in all respects considered the same as military retired except for insurance. I plan on requesting that these vets are considered the same including insurance except they are forgiven the copay.

My feeling is the vets are receiving at best 3rd rate medical care with medicare 2nd rate. I am service connected for heart problems, 3 heart attacks and sudden death syndrom (defibulator implanted), I havn't seen a VA Cardiologist for over 7 years rather I am followed by nurse practicioners. Personally I am tired of having to beg for needed treatment I'm having treatments done in FL right now. The treatment is EECP the first time it was requested by a prescription from a vascular sergon it was at a leval that medicare would accept it took the VA over 3 years to approve, the current time when it was requested problems were such that medicare would have covered but the VA took over a year to approve then disapproved because they thought it was too far away this took intervention of Congressman Boucher to be approved. I am finally seeing a real cardioligist.

Not looking for pitty just possible support for a campain to our lawmakers to right a wrong. Mine is far from the worse story but is the only that I can pass on.

[WestTexasS2K]

LocostV8 I have to agree all the Vets deserve much better treatment than they have ever gotten. The Automovation program is not a VA or goverment supported program. It was started by a few car enthusiast that found a location and started gathering support.

I would be glad to put a few calls and emails in to my congressman on the other Vets behalf as well.

[WestTexasS2K]

I set up a paypal account for members to send money to. It is automovation@hotmail.com it will take a few days for the Verification process to go thru but you should be able to send money to it now. I will keep the totals updated weekly so that people can see the progress.

We have a few people ready to send green backs I will update on Fridays.

For merchants that want to get a tax deduction for their contributions they can call the foundation give them the amount of item donated and they will email or mail them a certificate that they can use for tax deduction. The number and address can be found by going to the website first posted and then going to the contirbution tab. You can print it off and give it to the merchant for them to contact the charity. Or use this link http://www.operationcomfort.org/html/contributions.html

[locostv8]

LocostV8 I have to agree all the Vets deserve much better treatment than they have ever gotten. The Automovation program is not a VA or goverment supported program. It was started by a few car enthusiast that found a location and started gathering support.

I would be glad to put a few calls and emails in to my congressman on the other Vets behalf as well.

Thats why I said kudos this is not being done by mandate but because you want to and it should relay be a help.

I realy debated saying the other. I plan on getting together with Boucher, who has realy been a champion of the vet. If that fails then will post wherever I can and all help will be appreciated.

[WestTexasS2K]

Update on where we are. We have had 5 donations to the Paypal account for a total of 205.00. Thanks to you guys who have supported these soilders.

I was able to get 2 cases of abrasives dontated, Paint supply store is fixing me up with boxes of paint supplies tape, paper, bondo and sand paper products. I got a welding supply store to donate an Oxygen/ Acetlyne torch. Local machine shop is donating a bunch of used hand tools from a recent business they bought out. Local Snap-on dealer is gathering products from all the dealers in our region. Not sure what we will get from them but a few tools will be great. I have 10 more people to see next week.

[WestTexasS2K]

Well I have been hitting the streets here. Family Powersports is a motorcycle dealer in the area. They donated a Snap On 4 drawer rolling box and a Craftsmen tool kit. I have a friend that is a good airbrush artist he is going to airbrush an Eagle on the tool box lid inside. The local Oriellys store donated a rolling tool cart. Napa is donating a floor jack with jack stands. Today I went to sears and bought a 260 piece tool set, ratchet wrenches both std and metric and a big screw driver set.

I have a few more people that are donating money but havent ponied up yet.

I am organizing a event for 4th of July weekend with the local military base. Goodfellow AFB is a joint military training facility for all military fire fighters. So the local fire fighters are joining forces with them to do a donation drive at 3 Orielly stores. It will be covered by radio and tv so hopefully it will have good results.

Kevin and Michelle are going to send flyers to all 4000 of the stores they work with and challenging them to send $10.

Thanks to the 5 guys here that have supported the solders.

[7evin]

Loren we are going to hit the sponsors up to see if we can squeeze them for a little more also.

You make me proud to call you my friend.

Cheers
7evin

[roll a 7]

A Memorial Day autocross in San Diego allowed the paralyzed vets that normally run off-road events to run on the tarmac with the SCCA guys. These guys use hand controls to get about in lieu of what we get to use. They had an absolute blast and are thinking of running more events with us. Our local club paid their entry fees.

One Corvette owner said he didn't know of any paralyzed vette owners. We set him straight.

[WestTexasS2K]

Me and the family ventured to San Antonio this weekend to takc a load of goodies to the Automovation program. We ended up with 2 really nice tool kits that should serve most mechanices very well. A few DA sanders complete with sanding supplies, long boards blocks etc. A folding engine hoist, engine stand, nice 2 ton racing aluminum jack. A few shop accessories like drop lights and the such.

We were meet Rob Robertson there with his very sweet S2k Powered Westfield. We got a complete tour of the shop facilities. They have 5 bays that are aprox 30x50 and also a very nice break room that is the same size. See attached photos. All the guys wanted rides in the cars so Rob and I loaded them up and took for quick blast down the road. They really appreciated the tools and they were a blast to hang with. See attached photos.
Robs Westfield
http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1649605300_DSC01999.JPG
BJ project car he got severly burned and is a real car nut,
He purchased a LS2 with a Magnusum supercharger fron the Unique Motorsports fraud auction.
http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/644828708_DSC02002.JPG

one of the shops bayhttp://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1654527942_DSC02001.JPG

Break Room http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1243827130_DSC02008.JPG

Coke machine
http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/2102827902_DSC02009.JPGhttp://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1225955367_DSC02013.JPGhttp://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/502897889_DSC02015.JPG

[scannon]

Loren,

Thanks to you and all the others that participated in this worthy endeavor.

I'll bet the rides you and Rob gave them in the Se7ens really caused some attitude adjustments! How long before they start cranking out their own version?

Skip

[slngsht]

great ambassadorship for our hobby :thumbs:

[WestTexasS2K]

Yeah we might have a few locost builders on our hands. They just got a Bendpac mandrel bender donated so they are set for a little locost fabrication.

[captzoom]

There were a lot of questions, especially during and after the rides about how to build one of these vehicles. Like most folks, these guys had no concept of the performance available from a "Seven".

The spirit of these wounded warriors was very inspiring. It was an honor and a privilege to associate with them. Thanks to Loren for making it happen.

[Mandurath]

Would a couple of the LC books interest them? (I would be willing to purchase one of Keiths for that purpose, along with the Gibbs one) Along with a copy of Competition Car Suspension: Design, Construction, Tuning by Allen Staniforth (Author), since I have two. Was going to sell the spare, but if you think they would use it then they would be welcome to it.

[WestTexasS2K]

I think that they would love the books on Locost construction. You could mail them directly to the shop if you like. I am sure once they see how one is constructed maybe one of the guys will be willing to tackle one.

[captzoom]

One of the Automotivation guys told me he was very interested in chassis and suspension design and wanted to get some books on the subject. I have been searching for some suspension design software to send him but haven't found it yet (hard to find anything now,since we're in the middle of a home remodel process).

I'm sure they'll be very grateful for the books.

[Mandurath]

I'll send them out this week, along with any others that I have that are not being used. Heheh some I have purchased are a bit over my poor truck driving brains education level (who knew they would actually want higher level math skills for building a car......). These fat books may do them more good than me, though I will have to find something else to balance my workbench.

[Mandurath]

Heh, I am dense. Shop, thought you meant the Automotivation shop, just realized you meant yours. Here is the list so far, any others needed while I am in a book buying mood? Got a gift card, use it on a worthy cause, though Hot Chicks on bikes could be considered worthy too.



Spares
Carroll Smiths Nuts, bolts, fasteners and plumbing handbook
Allan Staniforths Competion Car Suspension Handbook (Should help with the guy interested in suspension)

Amazon
Keith Tanner's How to Build a Cheap Sports Car
Chris Gibbs Build your own Sports Car on a budget

[WestTexasS2K]

Mandurath that looks like some good material. I bet those guys will enjoy going thru the materials. You can ship it directly to them.

http://www.operationcomfort.org/html/contact_us.html Thanks for the support.

[Mandurath]

Well, add the books to the tally, they are in route. Well, may actually be there already, wife shipped them while I was on the road.