The Saline Reporter
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Car donation program aids Vietnam Veterans
Milan-based program supports projects for Vietnam vets in need
By Kym Boelter-Muckler, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: March 24, 2005
Sandie Wilson does not talk about Vietnam, but she does talk about the "guys" who served there.
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As an Army operating room nurse, Wilson spent her time in the Vietnam helping those "guys" when they needed her.
Since then, little has changed.
"I've been taking care of these guys forever, so it only seemed natural that I should keep on taking care of them now," said Wilson.
Wilson keeps the wheels turning for the Vietnam Veterans Car Donation program, set up at County and Dexter streets in Milan's downtown.
"If it has a motor in it, we'll take it," said Wilson, of the VVA program.
Moreover, the motor doesn't have to actually work. The VVA Michigan Car Donations Center will, as Sandie Wilson put it, "repair it, sell it or scrap it."
The program helps in several different ways. Some municipalities have ordinances against "yard" cars that haven't been driven in years. The VVA car donation program gives those cars a place to go, and gives the former owner a tax deduction of $500.
In addition, cars at the VVA lot are priced anywhere from $400 to $22,000, a price range appealing to pocketbooks of every size.
"We will sell a car to anyone with a current driver's license and cash," Wilson said.
"We fund projects for Vietnam veterans who are in need," she said. "That is what we do."
Every dollar they take in goes out in the form of funding a VVA charity.
"Last year we helped 1,200 needy families through our Operation Christmas project for the Alpena Chapter," said Wilson. "Whatever we make on cars goes right into programs."
Other programs include supporting the Fire Education Program for Saline Schools. In Sumpter Township, they support the Veterans Against Drugs program.
"We contribute to anything for the police and fire departments because they run so many children's programs," Wilson said.
For Wilson though, the most important project they support is to provide a permanent home for "economically challenged" Vietnam vets.
"The house is in the city of Monroe, and it provides a permanent home for six people who need jobs and housing," said Wilson.
The house meets all HUD requirements and provides everything a person would need, including dishes, furniture, linens, everything.
"If they have a job we ask for one-third of their income to live there. They are responsible for maintaining the house," she said. "It is spotless."
Furnished through donations, the home is one answer to the problem of homeless vets.
The project manager of the house, helps with menu planning and can even help a vet find a job, and find a job quick, according to Wilson.
"We had a Vietnam vet show up with nothing but the Levi's, tennis shoes and the t-shirt he was wearing," said Wilson. "The VA Hospital asked us if we could help him and we did."
As great as the house program is, Wilson worries that it could be in peril, because the Monroe City Council has threatened to revoke the tax abatement awarded to the program when it started.
"Now they're trying to say that it is a fraternity. By HUD standards it is considered a functionally equivalent family."
When someone donates a car to the VVA car program, they are allowed a $500 deduction on their income taxes, or they can deduct the price amount for what the vehicle sold for, according to Wilson, who admits to being somewhat infuriated with this year's new car deduction rules.
"Up until last year you could deduct whatever your car's blue book price was, but not anymore. Now you can get an appraisal before you donate it and deduct that amount," Wilson said.
The rule change could result in less funding for "the guys," which worries her. Wilson is a charter member of the Washtenaw County VVA and keeps a close eye on veteran's issues.
She is particularly concerned with the Michigan Veterans Trust Fund, which was set up in 1946 with $50 million.
"That money was for veterans facing difficult financial times. But now it is in jeo ardy."
The funding from that $50 million was to provide grants for housing, and food for veterans and their families, but over the years state lawmakers, present and past have not protected the trust.
"It was supposed to help support children of deceased vets and provide support to disabled vets, but it's been depleted."
For nearly 50 years, the Michigan Legislature occasionally borrowed from the fund but always paid it back, with interest.
In 1996, voters amended the state constitution to protect the fund, but four years later Gov. John Engler shifted tuition funds earmarked for the children of veterans killed or 100 percent disabled from the general fund to the trust fund, thereby avoiding the protection of the amendment.
Since then the current state administration has continued dipping into the fund for tuition grants and administrative costs, rather than using the money for it's original purpose, which was to provide emergency money to vets going through hard times.
"Vets in Need" grants were trimmed down to compensate for the depleted principal. Emergency food grants were cut to $100 regardless of family size and now vets must wait two years before applying for help again. It's a source of frustration for Wilson, who retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel.
"Everyone who works here is a retired veteran," she said. "I'm just going to keep on doing whatever I can to support Vietnam Veterans. It's a cause I believe in."
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