{"id":73772,"date":"2019-12-10T21:31:12","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T21:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/12\/10\/it-changed-my-life-these-nonprofits-are-honored-for-making-a-difference-in-the-military-community\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T13:53:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:53:46","slug":"it-changed-my-life-these-nonprofits-are-honored-for-making-a-difference-in-the-military-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/management\/pay-benefits\/2019\/12\/10\/it-changed-my-life-these-nonprofits-are-honored-for-making-a-difference-in-the-military-community\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It changed my life\u2019: These nonprofits are honored for making a difference in the military community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before a chance meeting at a basketball game a few years ago, Vietnam veteran Mike Donnelly had never heard of the Quality of Life Plus Program. But that nonprofit organization has changed his life, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The charity sponsored a project where engineering students at the University of Cincinnati designed and built a custom device<\/a> that lifts his scooter carrier\/lift to the hitch on the back of his car. The Department of Veterans Affairs had provided him with the scooter and a carrier\/lift, but he and his wife were unable to lift the 200-pound carrier enough to attach it to the hitch on his large car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donnelly\u2019s exposure to Agent Orange in the Army caused him numerous health problems. With his mobility issues, including problems with balance, he can\u2019t walk any distance. Since receiving the device in May, he\u2019s been able to transport the scooter, opening up many more activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s projects like this one that resulted in the Quality of Life Plus Program receiving the highest honor, and a $50,000 award, in the 2019 Newman\u2019s Own Awards competition. Four other organizations are each receiving $37,500 in the competition, which is in its 20th year of honoring non-profit organizations<\/a> for their innovative programs created to improve military quality of life. In those 20 years, more than $2 million has been awarded to 174 non-profit programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, more than 200 entries were received in the competition, which is sponsored by Newman\u2019s Own, the Fisher House Foundation and media partner Military Times. The winners will be honored at a ceremony at the Pentagon in early 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt Newman\u2019s Own, we are honored to carry on Paul Newman\u2019s legacy by supporting organizations that help improve the quality of life of our military members and their families,\u201d said Jeff Smith, vice president of operations at Newman\u2019s Own, Inc. Actor Paul Newman, a Navy veteran who served in the Pacific during World War II, later came up with his own line of salad dressings, sauces, pizzas and other items, and determined that all profits from Newman\u2019s Own sales would go to charities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grant will help Quality of Life Plus Program with more projects like Donnelly\u2019s, said Amber Humphrey, Midwest region program manager for QL+, and one of the employees who met Donnelly by chance in late 2017. But the organization is also grateful to be getting the word out through this recognition, she said, in hopes that more veterans and family members will present some challenges for students to create more solutions to improve veterans\u2019 quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where the magic happens,\u201d Humphrey said. \u201cWe\u2019re providing veterans something, but the veteran is also providing something for the students, helping make them better engineers. The veteran is their client, and they have to make their client happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students are eager to work on these hands-on projects that make a difference in people\u2019s lies, she said, and many form bonds with the veterans in the process. Many of the students have veterans in the family, she said, adding to their desire to work on the projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo see these kids work, it\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Donnelly said. He\u2019s now working with another team of students from the University of Cincinnati, as they develop a convertible cover for his scooter. Because of his skin problems, he must avoid the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re really hands-on. I thought they\u2019d be shy, but they\u2019re asking questions, coming up with ideas as they\u2019re looking at the scooter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team of female engineering students took some measurements of the scooter on Dec. 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nonprofit was founded in 2009 by Air Force veteran Jon Monett, a retired Central Intelligence Agency executive and a Cal Poly-trained engineer, to fill gaps in veterans\u2019 lives by developing devices that aren\u2019t currently on the market, or provided by the Veterans Health Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veterans from all generations are eligible for the assistance. QL+ is now at 19 universities, and all the schools always want more projects, Humphrey said. QL+ recruits the veterans, identifies the challenges for students as a senior design project, and with faculty advisers, monitors the projects through completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2009, QL+ has sponsored 221 projects. This school year, QL+ is working with 281 students on 59 projects. In some cases, the nonprofit pays the school an upfront fee, in others, it pays for materials. After the students narrow their concept to one solid idea, the nonprofit asks them for a budget so they can justify how they are going to spend the money. If there is any travel involved for the veteran and family members, the nonprofit pays for that, because they don\u2019t veterans to incur any expenses, Humphrey said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the projects solve one veteran\u2019s challenge; others can help a lot of people. A number of devices help veterans with issues related to workouts and activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such device was built by engineering students at Virginia Tech, helping an Army veteran in Maine avoid tracking her muddy wheelchair wheels into her house. The device, mounted to the porch, lifts the avid outdoorsman\u2019s wheelchair just enough so that she can take off the dirty wheels and put clean wheels on it before entering her house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another case, a Korean War veteran with Parkinson\u2019s disease sought assistance with his episodes of \u201cfreezing of the gait\u201d \u2013 brief episodes of inability to move the feet forward despite the intention to walk. At Cal Poly, a student developed a device that attaches to any cane or walker and uses clinically proven visual and audio cues to help him overcome those episodes. Realizing there was a need for this device among others with Parkinson\u2019s disease, the student graduated early and started a company to design and build a similar device called the NexStride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want veterans and families to reach out and say, \u2018I could really use this, or this has always bothered me.\u2019 Maybe we could make this into an engineering problem or some kind of [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] solution,\u201d Humphrey said.<\/p>\n\n\n