‘Help Our Military Heroes’ Awards 3 Vans Through MobilityWorks in Tampa

Help Our Military Heroes van recipient Jim Fuqua with his wife Carol and Ted and Laurie Hollander of Help Our Military Heroes in front of Jim's new accessible Honda Odyssey

Our MobilityWorks Tampa location was full of excitement on December 14 as the non-profit Help Our Military Heroes presented three veterans with their new vans as part of their 200th grant celebration.

Help Our Military Heroes was founded with a very specific mission in mind: to provide wheelchair accessible transportation to wounded, injured, and/or ill active-duty service members and veterans who sustained their wounds or injuries while on active duty or in the service,” said Co-Founder Ted Hollander.

On December 14, Help Our Military Heroes presented their 201st-203rd vans on site at our Tampa store. The event also served as a family reunion of sorts for other past recipients whose vans had to be presented virtually because of the pandemic.

Ted continued, “Here in Tampa, we’ve provided grants for eight veterans which we had to meet with virtually for almost the last three years. Normally, we would have come down, met them and their families, seen their vans…but we’ve had to do that virtually. Now that things are opening up again, we were able to get most of those veterans all in one place and meet some of those past van recipients that we’ve helped before.”

Vietnam veteran Jim Fuqua (pictured above) was among the 200th van recipients who attended the celebration and said he is “humbled” by everything the organization has done for him.

“Those are a couple of amazing people right there. Never in my life have I been more humbled than by what these kind people, all of them, have done to help Carol and I…it’s just a humbling event. Carol and I are completely overjoyed. I cannot say enough, and I think I represent a lot of veterans, at least those of us from Vietnam,” he said.

Help Our Military Heroes has awarded 205 vehicle grants since they began their mission. Over 130 of those has taken place through a MobilityWorks location. Territory Manager Scott Shelby has been involved in 22 van presentations alone in Tampa and says it is an honor to help our nation’s veterans maintain their independence.

“It’s an honor to serve the heroes of our country, and for us to be able to help them maintain their mobility and freedom that we take for granted – it’s an honor, and humbling at the same time,” he said.

Certified Mobility Consultant Mike Love echoed Scott’s gratitude, saying, “Our goal as a company, and mine specifically, is to make sure that we make the lives better of every single person that comes in…it was evident today, by what people said and their reactions.”

At MobilityWorks, we consider it a privilege to help our nation’s veterans. We work closely with the veteran community and can assist you as you work with the Veterans Administration to obtain a vehicle. Contact us today to learn more!