This Veterans Day, Paralyzed Veterans of America will encourage everyone to find time everyday to do something good for our veterans and their families. All Americans can help to provide leadership, service and empowerment for veterans, from the Greatest Generation to the latest generation who are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Join paralyzed veterans’ national president Gene A. Crayton (U.S. Navy, Ret.) and executive director Homer S. Townsend, Jr. (US Marine Corps, Ret.) as they urge:
- Leaders, from the president and the Congress to our mayors and county commissioners, to support all efforts to empower veterans.
- Architects and builders to improve their designs by making them more wheelchair-accessible.
- CEOs to help empower paralyzed veterans with good jobs.
Sixty-three years ago, Paralyzed Veterans of America was founded by a band of spinal cord injured service members who returned home from World War II to a grateful nation, but also to a world with few solutions to the challenges they faced. They made a decision not just to live, but to live with dignity as contributors to society. They created Paralyzed Veterans, dedicated to veterans’ service, medical research, and civil rights for people with disabilities. And for more than six decades, Paralyzed Veterans and its 34 chapters have been working to create an America where all veterans, and people with disabilities, and their families, have everything they need to thrive.
Gene A. Crayton (U.S. Navy, Ret.), national president of Paralyzed Veterans of America. A resident of St. Louis, he was elected to the organization’s highest office this year. Gene, a Vietnam veteran, is a passionate advocate for quality VA health care, a barrier-free wheelchair accessible America, and new treatments for spinal cord injury.
Homer S. Townsend, Jr. (U.S. Marine Corps, Ret.), national executive director of Paralyzed Veterans of America. A native of Woodland, Maine, he later moved to Mesa, Arizona. Homer is a former Paralyzed Veterans’ national president.
For more information: www.pva.org
