Category Volunteers Serving Veterans

CalVet logo, text that says "Volunteers serving veterans," and image of smiling woman holding paper poppies.

Climbing the Ladder of Volunteering Success at Chula Vista Veterans Home

Several winters ago, Lois Cornish says she met a real Grinch: a notoriously cantankerous veteran who lived at the Veterans Home of California-Chula Vista. In our ongoing “Volunteers Serving Veterans” series, CalVet highlights Cornish, who began volunteering at the Chula Vista Home when it opened in 2000. She soon started recruiting some of her American […]

Graphic with CalVet logo, text that says "Volunteer serving veterans," and image of smiling woman sitting behind counter.

Redding Home Veterans Always Know What Volunteer Has in Store for Them

Whenever Dorothy Lipps volunteers to work in the tiny store inside the Veterans Home of California-Redding, she comes dressed for the part. “I’m very patriotic,” said Lipps, who began helping out at the Home seven years ago. “I always wear red, white, and blue. My two sisters and I always have done that, even when […]

Veterans’ Best Friend Proved to be the Volunteer of a Lifetime at Fresno Home

Shortly after the Veterans Home of California-Fresno opened in October 2013, Gladys Garza-Brown took her former husband, an ailing veteran, there to scout it out as a place where he might live. She also brought along her Border Collie, Chase. The moment they walked through the doors, staff immediately began recruiting her and Chase to […]

Graphic with CalVet logo, text that says, "Volunteers serving veterans," and image of smiling woman holding teddy bear.

With Pandemic Restrictions Eased, CalVet Homes are Eager to Rebuild Volunteer Ranks

Arlene Kepplin loved volunteering so much at the Veterans Home of California-Yountville that she did so for more than two decades. Her remarkable span began in 1998; she kept going strong until the pandemic in 2020 severely limited all volunteerism at Yountville—and at all other seven Veterans Homes. The majority of Kepplin’s volunteerism was at […]