For the past three years, Hampton VA Medical Center’s Home Telehealth Service has been donating care packages to the Health and Emergency Response Shelter in Portsmouth, Virginia, a private, non-profit agency offering 24-hour emergency hotline and housing for women who fear for their safety and their children.

“We donate in a quiet manner,” according to Home Telehealth care coordinator Frances Reid.

The group is inspired by the words of Winston Churchill, “You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.”

The team’s most recent donation of 20 care packages to the shelter included personal hygiene items and other essential products that are hard to keep on the shelf, as residents go through them continually. The care packages were given to women and children in need who were receiving assistance through the shelter. The shelter houses between 15-20 women at a time.

This is just one example of how these Hampton VA Medical Center employees exemplify the I-CARE values, whether by caring for our nation’s heroes or people in the community in need.


About the author: Brett Robbins is a public affairs officer with the Veterans Health Administration VISN 6.

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