Karen Grimord with Sargeant Daniel Roman, a patient at Landstuhl hospital in Germany. Photo courtesy Philip Jones.

To understand why Karen Grimord is so passionate about helping wounded soldiers overseas, just shake her family tree. Karen is a proud military brat who was born in a military hospital and grew up within the tight-knit, supportive community of military families. Both Karen’s father and husband retired from the U.S. Air Force after 22 years. At one point, five family members were serving in the Middle East at the same time, including her son and son-in-law. Karen herself worked as a military contractor for years, first for Lockheed Martin and later, for Raytheon.

Frequent moves and fast-forming friendships are hallmarks of the military lifestyle. So is a deeply rooted sense of mission and loyalty to country and the men and women who serve. That mission may be what drives Karen, 51, to commit extraordinary acts of charity through her nonprofit organization, Landstuhl Hospital Care Project.

Since 2004, the organization has shipped more than 200,000 pounds of donated clothing and supplies, often at Karen’s own expense, to wounded and ailing soldiers in the Middle East. The bulk of donated items are mailed to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the largest American military hospital outside of the U.S. Karen also sends supplies to medics, nurses, and chaplains at more than 150 military units throughout Afghanistan, Iraq, and other Middle East countries with U.S. military operations. “If we can help just one military member with a gift, then I hope they feel the respect, gratitude, and the love we have for them. That’s what keeps pushing me on—knowing that it makes their future a little bit easier,” Karen says.

Her labor of love can be back-breaking at times. Working out of her home in Stafford, Virginia, she fills boxes with an assortment of requested items. A typical shipment might include sweatpants, Crocs, socks, towels, pillows, or blankets. Four or five days a week, she drives to the post office in her white Chevy Suburban, which she reluctantly purchased a few years back when the charity grew too large for her beloved Jeep to handle.

Sometimes, Karen is lucky enough to find volunteers to help. But often, it’s just Karen and her packing tape filling up boxes and taping them shut for their distant journey. Halfway through 2012, Karen had already shipped 946 boxes, a number on pace to beat last year’s tally of 1,713 boxes. In fact, supply and demand have grown rapidly since the charity’s first year when it sent its first 33 boxes of supplies. Karen expects demand will increase as other nonprofits close their doors or shift their focus to helping returning soldiers.

The organization grew out of a simple request from Karen’s daughter who was living in Germany, where her husband was stationed. Would she collect DVD and videotape movies and send them to wounded soldiers at nearby Landstuhl hospital?

Karen appealed to her circle of family and friends, collecting 485 movies. Grateful for her enthusiasm, the chaplain at Landstuhl asked Karen to collect sweatpants. Again, she turned to family and friends who donated 108 pairs. To her dismay, she learned the number was a “drop in the bucket” to meet the hospital’s needs. At the time, as many as 1,000 soldiers were arriving at the hospital every month, and their first stop was the Chaplain’s Closet, a place where soldiers received donated clothing and supplies to replace their tattered and bloody clothing.

Karen reached out to veterans groups such as the American Legion and soon, donations came pouring in. But the more supplies she mailed to Landstuhl, the greater the requests for donations. In just a year, word-of-mouth spread among military medics and medical staff in the Middle East about the woman in Stafford, Virginia, who almost never said “no” to a request for supplies.

“There was never a plan for me to start a nonprofit,” Karen says. “What started as one or two boxes turned into thousands.”

Karen knew she needed help with the legal and financial realities of running a charitable organization. Today, a small but loyal group of volunteers—many with strong military ties—handle accounting, communications, and other vital support services.

In addition to running her nonprofit, Karen also spends a month at Landstuhl hospital every year as a volunteer, handing out clothing and supplies from the Chaplain’s Closet.

It was at the hospital that she met Marine Lance Corporal Justin Reynolds. In 2006, the young Marine was recovering from shrapnel wounds and other injuries suffered when his Humvee hit an Improvised Explosive Device in Iraq.

From the start, the wounded soldier from Ohio clicked with Karen and gave her the nickname “Mom Two.” One day, Karen got a call from Ann Reynolds, Justin’s mother. The soldier had returned home to recuperate but suffered a stroke resulting in partial paralysis. Karen hopped in her car and drove to the hospital in North Carolina where Justin was fighting for his life. There, the two “moms” met face-to-face for the first time.

Nearly two years later, a second setback robbed Justin of his speech and motor coordination. Again Karen dropped everything to visit the Marine and his family, now in nearby Richmond, Virginia. “Karen has been such a great friend,” says Ann Reynolds. “If I need something, I call Karen. She knows how to get it.”

Karen’s devotion to Justin and his family is a clear example of why she works so tirelessly for wounded military members. Karen, her friends and family members say, is the kind of person who simply refuses to back down. Karen believes Justin one day will regain his speech and motor skills. Until that day, she will support him, just as she supports her charity—until every military member comes home.

To view a video of Karen Grimord, go to saturdayeveningpost.com/karen-grimord.

American Angel The Saturday Evening Post

Between the treatment and the travel, the expenses were devastating.

Help came when a family friend, Greg Selke, a high school athlete and classmate of Daniel’s, raised the idea of a charity footrace. The event, dubbed “Daniel’s 5K,” was first run in 2006. Daniel himself participated in that first race even though the cancer had already spread to his spine, liver, and lungs. Sadly, just a few months later, the disease claimed his young life. But the race that bore his name had taken on a life of its own. After Daniel’s passing, rather than letting the race become simply a memory, his father and mother, Dean and Tammie, took over administrative duties for Daniel’s 5K. They rededicated the event to raising funds for other worthy individuals and organizations.

Since then Daniel’s 5K has raised thousands of dollars for local and national causes. For Daniel’s family, as for countless others, charity begins with neighbors helping neighbors—using innovative means to confront the tragedies that hit us where we live.

The decentralized nature of this model of charity makes it different from the kind with which most of us are familiar. Using the latest technology it is increasingly possible to take direct action to address needs close to us—whatever the scale—whether a natural disaster, a medical catastrophe, or the renovation of a community center.

This approach requires work, to be sure, but many prefer the direct approach to sending a check to a distant foundation. The person-to-person aspect was especially important to Dean. “Everyone that participates in our race gets a thank-you note telling them the specifics of where the money is being spent,” he says. “And once we get the thank-yous from the people we donated the money to, we pass those along as well.”

Now grassroots tactics can intersect with contemporary social media—from Facebook to LinkedIn and beyond. Amanda Justus, co-founder of 31 Heroes, a charity dedicated to servicemen, managed to put together a national fundraising event at locations across the country using only Facebook, WordPress (the software behind many websites), and online message boards.

A resident of Virginia Beach, Virginia, Amanda was drawn to philanthropy primarily out of concern for her community. Just this past August a helicopter crash killed 30 American servicemen, many of them members of the famous Navy SEAL Team Six, plus one dog. Seventeen of the soldiers had been based in Virginia Beach. “It hit so close to home. The whole community was reeling, asking what they could do,” says Amanda. “People were frozen, wanting to help, but having no idea how.”

Brainstorming with friends, Amanda thought to address the crisis in her hometown using her affiliation with another community, albeit a virtual one. Amanda is a CrossFit athlete, practicing an intense full-body workout program favored by firefighters and, not coincidentally, military personnel. She drew upon the loosely knit, national network of CrossFit gyms and was amazed by the speed and scale of the response. “The crash took place on Saturday, August 6th. We set up a Facebook page on Sunday morning, and by Sunday night we had almost a thousand fans. By Tuesday we were up to two thousand.”

The 31 Heroes event played out very simply. Participants paid a registration fee—$31, in fact—and gathered at their local gyms on September 3 to participate in a special workout routine. “In the end we had over 10,000 people participate,” says Amanda. “The way it spread was just viral.”

The key to her success, she believes, was the speed with which it rolled out. “After a major tragedy, everyone wants to do something immediately—but that desire tends to fade away soon after,” she says. “We wanted to right away get on top of that, so the opportunity would be right there for people who were ready to give.” Social media made that rapid response possible.

For all the success of 31 Heroes, Amanda is content to stick with her strengths. Her passion for the cause made her a natural fundraiser, but, “we don’t ever want to be responsible for saying where the funds go,” she says. Indeed, few beginners have the financial background and connections needed for effective disbursal of funds. The solution that both she and Dean found was partnering with established charitable foundations—organizations with grantmaking know-how and apparatus already in place.

When choosing and evaluating charity partners, good neighbors stay close to home, often giving to organizations with whom they have had dealings in the past. The Myslivecek family, for instance, divides the proceeds of Daniel’s 5K among organizations that assisted them during their son’s illness such as Melanoma Hope, the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and Rochester’s Golisano Children’s Hospital. “During Daniel’s treatment, without these organizations, it would have been impossible for us to manage on our own,” says Dean. “So we thought, let’s give something back.”

Using the latest technology it is increasingly possible to take direct action to address needs close to us. From left: Mackenzie Tobin-Padell, John Weiss, and Amanda Justus, the 31 Heroes team. Photo by Mario Gandia.

The choice of a giving partner was not difficult for Amanda either. A military spouse herself, she was familiar with the work of the Navy SEAL Foundation long before the tragic events of August 2011. “I have good friends who are military widows who have benefited greatly from the Foundation,” she says. “I knew that they were a trustworthy organization.” She stresses the importance of due diligence when choosing a charity with which to work: “You want to be a smart consumer with who you give money to.” (For advice on how to tell good charities from bad, and for instructions on how to file a complaint against a fraudulent charity, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s Charity Fraud website.)

Before these new charity organizations could start raising funds, their journey had an unlikely first stop—the Internal Revenue Service. Although the IRS may not inspire charitable thoughts, it is at the forefront of philanthropic support in the U.S. All nonprofit organizations are required to register with tax authorities, and, in return, the IRS provides step-by-step instructions for formalizing your organization, laying out your rights and obligations under the law.

The beauty of it is that you don’t need to know much to get started. “I had helped out with charity events when Daniel was first diagnosed,” says Dean. “I was behind the scenes with auditing and such, but that was the only time I’d ever been involved in anything like that. For the most part, the knowledge I’ve picked up has come from the person who does our taxes.”

Daniel’s 5K made the transition from a one-time, ad hoc event to an annual institution. 31 Heroes is still a work in progress. “We raised about $300,000 this year, which was fantastic,” says Amanda. “With that kind of response, everyone was asking if this was going to be an annual thing.” She and her team would like it to be, but the long-term prospects for either organization are far from certain. Studies show that approximately half of all nonprofits close up shop within their first 10 years of operation. One hurdle is unexpected overhead expenses, including permit fees and liability insurance.

Fundraisers usually take the form of athletic contests, games of chance, or auctions—all highly-regulated activities. “There are a lot of hoops to jump through, especially for a 5k race,” notes Dean. There can also be incidental expenses involved in helping participants get the most out of the event. The Mysliveceks, for example, employ an organization affiliated with U.S. Track and Field to ensure that the course for Daniel’s 5K is properly accredited and that race results are accurately timed and official.

Despite these high operating costs, charities can still thrive, even in the midst of a recession. “With the state of the economy right now, you’d think that more people would say no,” says Dean. “But I feel there’s some higher purpose at play. Because some people don’t really know exactly who Daniel was; they don’t know us all that well; they have no idea how a 5k can support melanoma. But they don’t say no.”

The most effective charities make it easy to say yes by finding ways to use donations of all types—not just cash, but goods, services, and the time and talent of volunteers.

“After the first year, we stopped buying trophies and started giving gift baskets as prizes,” says Dean. The baskets are stocked with donated merchandise and gift cards from area merchants. “People don’t just say yes for the exposure, or the advertising,” he says. “They do it because they think it’s a good idea.”

Donor partners are rewarded with advertising and exposure, of course—and it is this cycle of goodwill, of doing well by doing good, that keeps donors coming back. Even 31 Heroes, which came together quickly and on the cheap, offered a simple premium to entice participants—although Amanda groans remembering it. “That was the toughest part of doing it this year—handling 10,000 T-shirt orders!” she says, laughing. “It was brutal, because it was just the three of us, and we weren’t about to pay someone else to handle the disbursing of shirts.”

The tale of the T-shirts points to perhaps the most important lesson for any budding nonprofit: Be aware of your limitations. Keeping the organization’s goals realistic helps to avoid burnout and frustration and may be the best way to ensure sustainability. “The great thing about Daniel’s 5K is that the committee is kind of laid-back.” says Dean. “We don’t have outrageous expectations for what this is and what we can accomplish.”

Amanda agrees, adding that the same wisdom applies when an event succeeds beyond expectations. “When we put together 31 Heroes, I thought we might possibly get 2,000 participants,” she remembers. “But we quickly outgrew the capabilities of our registration software!” Despite the unanticipated work, the team never seriously considered capping participation at a manageable number. “People want to help, and it’s better to apologize for our slowness in processing the registrations than to cut off the potential money we could be raising.”

The community of participants, bound by a common cause, found it easy to forgive her; and that sense of fellowship, she says, is the greatest reward of her experience. “Just when you think that everything’s gone to hell, it’s very cool to see people come together, amidst tragedy,” she says. “Watching how people have been willing to rally together—I feel very blessed to be in the center of it, and watch it all around me.”

All You Need Is Love The Saturday Evening Post

Minorities overall have a particularly high need for organ transplants because some diseases of the kidney, heart, lung, pancreas, and liver are found more frequently in racial and ethnic minority populations than in the general population. For example, African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics are three times more likely than Whites to suffer from end-stage renal (kidney) disease, often as the result of high blood pressure and other conditions that can damage the kidneys. Native Americans are four times more likely than Whites to suffer from diabetes. Some of these conditions that can result in organ failure are best treated through transplantation, and others can only be treated by this life-saving procedure.  In addition, similar blood type is essential in matching donors to recipients. Because certain blood types are more common in ethnic minority populations, increasing the number of minority donors can increase the frequency of minority transplants.

There are no costs to your family for your donation. Costs related to donation are paid by the recipient, usually through insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid.

Electing to become an organ donor will NOT affect the quality of medical care you receive at the hospitals. The medical team trying to save your life is separate from the transplant team. Every effort is made to save your life before donation is considered.

What can be donated? Organs: heart, kidneys, pancreas, lungs, liver, and intestines. Tissue: cornea, skin, heart valves, bone, blood vessels, connective tissue, bone marrow/stem cells, umbilical cord blood, and peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC).

To learn more about donating bone marrow or a cord blood unit, visit:
http://bloodcell.transplant.hrsa.gov/DONOR/Donating/index.html and http://bloodcell.transplant.hrsa.gov/CORD/Options/Donating/index.html

Even if you sign a donor card, it is essential that your family knows your wishes. Your family may be asked to sign a consent form in order for your donation to occur.

If you wish to learn how organ donation preferences are documented and honored where you live, contact your local organ procurement organization (OPO). The OPO can advise you of specific local procedures, such as joining donor registries that are available to residents in your area.
Each organ and tissue donor saves or improves the lives of as many as 50 people. Giving the “Gift of Life” may lighten the grief of the donor’s own family. Many donor families say that knowing other lives have been saved helps them cope with their tragic loss.

Get Started

Register with your state donor registry, if available.

Designate your decision on your driver’s license.

Sign a donor card and carry it with you. Download a page of eight donor cards that you may print and sign.

Order a free donor card that will be mailed to you.

Talk to your family. To help your family understand and carry out your wishes, sit down with your loved ones and tell them about your decision to be an organ and tissue donor. They can serve as your advocate and may be asked to give consent for donation or provide information to the transplant team.

To learn more. visit www.organdonor.gov

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration

Are You an Organ Donor? The Saturday Evening Post