After the Civil War and during his second inaugural, President Lincoln pledged, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and
for his widow and his orphan.”
Frank Lasch, founder and chief executive officer of Azalea Charities Inc., is a man after Lincoln’s own heart.
For eight years and three months, Mr. Lasch served his country in the U.S. Air Force, retiring with the rank of staff sergeant. Ten months were spent in Vietnam. Although that war ended almost 35 years ago, Mr. Lasch is still valiantly serving his country by caring for wounded men and women who have borne the battle in Iraq and Afghanistan. He cares for their families, too.
In 2000, Mr. Lasch founded Azalea Charities, a nonprofit organization based in Virginia’s Prince William County, that is made up of 100 percent volunteers who donate their time, talents and money to support a dual mission.
According to Azalea Charities’ Web site, barring minimal expenses, all funds raised go to charitable causes. In Northern Virginia, Azalea Charities financially supports the Boys & Girls Clubs, Special Olympics, homeless shelters (ACTS, SERVE, Carpenter’s Shelter), leukemia/lymphoma research, juvenile diabetes and education-based projects at about 20 schools.
Azalea Charities raises funds for Aid for Wounded Soldiers through membership fees, private donations and sponsorships of special events such as the Redskins Charity Challenge; an annual spring Golf Classic; and the Marine Corps Marathon, scheduled Oct. 25 this year. Azalea Charities is sponsoring 108 American runners and 26 British soldiers, some of whom were active in Afghanistan.
In another fundraising project, proceeds from the online sale of prints and notecards of the “Proud Warriors” painting, produced by internationally recognized artist Dean J. Baer in support of Azalea Charities’ Aid for Wounded Soldiers program, will be shared by featured allied countries also serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
” ’Proud Warriors’ is the first of a series of paintings commissioned by Azalea Charities to acknowledge our wounded military men and women and the wounded from other countries who have stood with the United States in the fight against terrorism,” Mr. Lasch said.
“We hope this effort will enlighten fellow countrymen, as well as our allies, that we must not forget these brave young men and women and their families,” Mr. Lasch said.
In 2004, Azalea Charities created a special international project, Aid for Wounded Soldiers, to provide comfort and relief items for soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines sick, injured or wounded from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Specific items such as clothes, toiletries, phone cards and laptop computers, requested by military medical centers, Veterans Affairs medical centers and Fisher House rehabilitation facilities are purchased each week.
Debra Washington, an Army veteran who retired for medical reasons, has volunteered for Azalea Charities the past three years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. She talks with troops and their families to assess their immediate needs and delivers purchased items.
“We meet them in crisis mode,” she said.
Many times, Ms. Washington bought cribs and baby items for pregnant wives visiting their wounded and sick husbands. As for the fulfillment she gets from helping the families, who often express their heartfelt gratitude, she added, “They encourage me. They lift me up.”
Because many of the servicemen and women are grievously wounded and require long hospitalization and rehabilitation, the intended purpose is to lift their spirits and enhance their morale as well as establish a lifetime support program.
Mr. Lasch said that bureaucracy and lengthy waits for processing requests leave the wounded and their caregivers in despair and destitution.
Azalea Charities is able to quickly address and remedy situations without the frustration and wait experienced while seeking aid from federal agencies.
A soldier once needed a Tempurpedic bed, he noted. There was no need to fill out applications or go through due process. Azalea Charities simply bought the bed.
The wife of another soldier, who needed to travel to Ohio to be fitted for a prosthesis, was provided airfare and travel expenses to accompany him. Azalea Charities donated the funds.
“Just tell us where the gaps are,” Mr. Lasch said. Mortgage, grocery and utility bills are paid so an affected family can focus on the care of the soldier without worrying over quality-of-life issues.
South Carolina schoolteacher Mary Beth McKinney was due to deliver her baby on Oct. 17, but the bundle of joy arrived two months earlier on Aug. 16. Her husband, Brian, served seven months in Afghanistan before being separated from the Navy in May for medical reasons, and had not begun receiving his veteran benefits. He suffers from traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and narcolepsy, she said.
No longer able to rely on her salary, money was scarce and bills were mounting. To make matters worse, their premature baby was hospitalized for a month.
Azalea Charities stepped in, paid their September bills, and the McKinney household returned to some degree of normalcy.
“And even after we’ve been home, Frank has still been in contact with us to see how his organization can help,” Mrs. McKinney said. “We are very humbled by the gift we were given, and when we are able, we plan to pay it forward … every penny of it.”
When a rocket landed just 10 feet away from 32-year Air Force veteran Lt. Col. Michael Marzec in Baghdad, he landed in in-patient care at Walter Reed Medical Center to have his right leg rebuilt. Aside from giving him moral support and encouragement during his 24 surgeries, Azalea Charities reconnected the single, Buffalo, N.Y., native to the outside world by giving him stationery and a laptop computer to communicate with family and friends.
It was a comfort to know there was someone there you could rely on,” Mr. Marzec said.
Recently, the organization adopted Walter Reed’s Ward 54, the psychiatric unit where soldiers with acute mental health conditions are cared for, and has since outfitted it with basketball courts, an outdoor tent, games and art supplies, and exercise equipment.
On weekends, volunteers host pizza parties, luncheons and dinners for the patients.
On Azalea Charities’ Web site under long-term commitment, it reads: “We will not abandon them. We will not forget them. They are our heroes, and we will stand with them in their suffering, pray for them in our private moments and provide for them to the utmost of our ability.”
c Geraldine Washington is a freelance writer living in the District.
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