Community Laces Up to Raise Funds and Awareness for Organization "My Brother Vinny"

May 31, 2016 - PRLog -- Nearly a thousand walkers gathered this past Sunday, May 15^th for the My Brother Vinny Walk at FDR Park in Yorktown Heights to help raise funds for this Yorktown-based charitable organization, My Brother Vinny continue its mission of 'Helping Mankind, One Good Deed at a Time.'  The NYS 501c3 charity is a very unique and multi-beneficial non-profit organization that provides support to those who are most in need. Dedicated to the memory of her brother Vincent Miritello who lived with Cerebral Palsy and passed away in 2000, founder/director Paula Miritello is committed to honoring her brother's memory by establishing community programs and charitable events designed to improve the quality of life, happiness and health of those who are emotionally, physically and intellectually disabled. The organization's involvement in animal advocacy/rescue assistance along with their well-known children's music, arts & dance program, 'Playtime with a Purpose' and their 'Let's Give Thanks/Holiday Coat Drive' events are just some of the meaningful initiatives implemented annually all over the Hudson Valley region.

But perhaps this organization's extraordinary support to US Veterans in Westchester, Putnam, the Bronx and neighboring areas is what makes it so remarkably special. My Brother Vinny has become an invaluable resource to the Department of Veteran Affairs by assisting those US Veterans transferring out of local VA Hospitals through the HUD-VASH Program. Since June 2013, My Brother Vinny has assisted nearly 300 US Veterans from various military branches to start their lives over. Miritello and her dedicated team of volunteers plan, organize, and physically move these homeless Veterans into their own independent living spaces: one by one and provide them with home furnishings including almost every household essential necessary - all free of charge.

  "So many Veterans we assist," Miritello explains, "they finally acquire their permanent housing voucher from the HUD-VASH Program, and only receive a key to an empty place, nothing else. And they end up sleeping on the floor."  As a 100% volunteer organization, My Brother Vinny operates entirely by the donations of furniture, household items and monetary contributions received in order to make these moves possible. Several Veterans assisted by My Brother Vinny have actually turned into volunteers themselves. "Some of these Veterans are now part of my volunteer team; they actually help us move other Veterans and look forward to doing future work together to help others." Miritello recalls, "I will never forget our very first Veteran. He said, 'Paula, you will now assemble your own Army, [of us] and we'll help you in any way we can' and honestly, he couldn't have been more right."

In December of 2013, Westchester resident and business owner Gregory Wager of New Rochelle's Wager Contracting donated nearly $13,000 to My Brother Vinny to purchase their own van after seeing a News-12 Westchester story about the organization's needs. "Greg Wager gave us our biggest miracle that year." Said Miritello. Prior to having a dedicated My Brother Vinny van, the organization's only resource was renting multiple trucks and using friends' minivans and cars to move Veterans. Miritello shares, "We are extremely grateful for all of our donations, we rely on them to keep doing what we do."  One volunteer even hand makes large 'household bins' for each Veteran consisting of all new bath towels, shower curtains, silverware, dinnerware/glassware, etc. as her way of donating to the organization. Recently, the organization received several floors of furniture as a donation from a renovating hotel in Long Island. Volunteers then found a way to secure donated storage units from a Westy facility to hold that furniture for upcoming Veteran moves. "We were beyond thrilled to have received such a generous donation of furniture for our Veterans - and then to receive donated storage space to hold it, we felt truly blessed." explains Miritello. "As a volunteer-based charity, our largest expenses are storage units, gas and moving trucks." She said. "We actually just rented our fifty-fifth U-Haul truck this month, and there are so many more out there who need our help." As their way of contributing, Gordon's Deli Café in Croton Falls has renamed their menu's vegetarian wrap to the "Vinny Veggie Wrap" with 100% of the proceeds benefiting My Brother Vinny.

Sunday's My Brother Vinny Walk hosted special guests including Hearts for Heros (H4HUS.org) a non-profit organization that helps US Veterans become re-acclimated to life at home through therapeutic canine and equine programs. Returning from North Carolina for a second year to exhibit and participate in the walk, H4HUS introduced miniature horses and former kill shelter rescue dogs to 'meet and greet' supporters of My Brother Vinny. This week they will train 10 rescue dogs to work with military Veterans suffering from PTSD at the nearby VA Hudson Valley Health Care System's FDR Campus in Montrose, NY.  "My Brother Vinny is a perfect alignment and compliment to the H4HUS mission." Key Burns, H4HUS President said. "Through our dog and horse rescue programs we save animals and help those who have served our country."

Other special guests included SNARR Northeast, FurBridge, Fight4Them and Cimmaron Ranch. Volunteer groups included the Yorktown Lions Club, Yorktown Leos, Somers Young Americans Club, Westchester County Emerald Society Pipes & Drums. Live music was provided by Sailing Stone and 100.7 WHUD Radio's Mike Bennett. Major event sponsors included Westy Self Storage, A.S.A.P Mortgage Corp., Inc., Reel Snow, Raiser & Kennif, Arroway Chrysler Jeep Ram of Bedford, Polyglass USA,

Donations can be made at www.mybrothervinny.org and for a special inside look at My Brother Vinny volunteer crews in action take a look here:  http://tinyurl.com/hzghxeh and http://tinyurl.com/gs5cr74.